Tone-deaf, in the figurative sense, refers to saying something without considering how it will land with your audience:

Wishing your vegetarian colleagues in Mumbai "Happy Turkey Day!" came off as a little tone-deaf.

However, in these politically correct times, the expression may cause offence to people with actual hearing loss and is apparently best avoided. Is there a good alternative that would work in the phrase above? (Words or short phrases are both fine.)

A couple of synonym sites I consulted were not very helpful: synonym.com offers "deaf" as a synonym (uh, no), Wiktionary offers "out of touch" (better, but not quite?) and most other major thesauruses don't seem to have it.

And a final vain plea: let's please try to avoid the discussion of whether this expression actually is or "should" be considered non-PC.


It’s insensitive. See for example these headlines:

  • A culturally insensitive nursing textbook illustrates the pickle medicine is in
  • How Being Polite Can Be Insensitive to People with Disabilities

You could say it was a “faux pas“ or a “gaffe” because it was a socially awkward blunder. You could describe the remark as “gauche” or, a bit less harshly, as “clumsy.”

If you’re particularly looking to describe the person, not the action, you could call them “careless,” “thoughtless,” “inconsiderate,” or “graceless.”


Tactless also is from music but doesn't carry an offensive overtone.

having no tact; unaware or intentionally inconsiderate of someone else's feelings


"Out of tune" is a possible alternative, one which isn't quite as negative as "insensitive".