unmoving
Word family
Synonym discussion
Sense: adjective/1
Still is the most common and neutral word for absence of movement — it works in everyday speech and in writing alike ('Keep still while I cut your hair'). Motionless is a close synonym to unmoving but slightly more frequent in descriptive prose ('The cat sat motionless, watching the bird'). Stationary emphasises a fixed position or location rather than complete body stillness ('The bus remained stationary at the traffic light'), so it is less suitable for describing people or animals in a frozen pose. Immobile carries the strongest implication: it can mean unable to move rather than choosing not to ('After the crash, the driver sat immobile, too shocked to speak'). Unmoving, the most literary of the four, is used for deliberate, striking descriptions of stillness — a guard at his post, a statue, a moment frozen in time. In everyday conversation, still or not moving are preferred.
Common collocations
Etymology
Unmoving is formed in English from the prefix un- (meaning 'not') combined with the adjective moving, which comes from the verb move. Move traces back through Old French movoir to Latin movēre, meaning 'to set in motion'. The word has been used in English since the 14th century, though the sense of emotional flatness (sense 2) is a later development from the 19th century.