somnambulistic
1
9.9
- adjective
- /sɑːmˌnæm.bjʊˈlɪs.tɪk/
- Specialized
- Perhaps I am reading too much Poe, or too much Charles Brockden Brown, whose late-eighteenth-century fictions are replete with somnambulistic doppelgangers, evil ventriloquists, and spontaneous combustion.
Examples
-
In hundreds of thousands of kitchens, the dishcloth passes over the cracked worktop, the rubbish bin stinks, and unpaid bills stick out from an exercise book on the table; in the background, a somnambulistic radio voice passes on messages about civil wars, outrages, and negotiations.
Fiction book (1997) -
Toward morning, toward the bright July morning that somehow managed to penetrate through his somnambulistic state, he heard footsteps and loud voices from the street outside.
Fiction book (2001) -
Before that, they are somnambulistic.
Blog text (18) -
We still need to determine whether there is a continuing danger to society from violent somnambulistic behaviors.
Academic text (2006) -
Made in the immediate aftermath of the First World War, Caligari allegorizes that war in a tale of insane authority impelling youth to somnambulistic murder.
Academic text (1993) -
She especially knew that, and hadn't she whispered somewhere in her somnambulistic other world of, surely, mansions of many golden chambers, beautiful maze gardens at lavender twilight?
Fiction book (2002) -
After staying up all night, he walked around the house in a somnambulistic daze, unaware of where he was going.
-
She answered the questions in a somnambulistic manner, as if she were still asleep during the exam.
-
His somnambulistic behavior while driving caused concern among his friends who were in the car with him.
Synonyms
5
3.3
Looks lost in thought and not paying attention
4
7.3
Looking dreamy and lost in thought, not paying attention
1
7.4
You are very still and not aware of things around you
1
8.9
To feel dazed and not able to pay attention
1
9.5
Moving slowly and without full attention like someone sleepwalking
1
5.2
Having a soft, hazy look that seems slightly blurred
How Dazed
256
4.2
- Specialized
1
9.9
1
7.4
38
4.8
185
3.1
Surface Forms
Morphology
somnambulistic = somnambulist (opaque) = somn + ambul + istic
Formed by regular adjectival suffixation from the noun 'somnambulist' (sleepwalker) to produce an adjective meaning 'like a somnambulist'.
Etymology
Somnambulistic comes from old Latin parts somn- meaning 'sleep' and ambul- meaning 'walk', the same root you can see in the simple word amble. So, somnambulistic describes moving or acting like a sleepwalker, doing things in a dazed or unthinking way.