inanimate
Syllables: in·an·i·mate/ɪnˈænɪmeɪt//ɪnˈænɪmət/
inanimate adjective: lacking the quality or ability of motion; as an inanimate object.
Adjective
inanimate (comparative more inanimate, superlative most inanimate)
- Lacking the quality or ability of motion; as an inanimate object.
- The love of the inanimate is a general feeling. True, it makes no return of affection, neither does it disappoint it; its associations are from our thoughts and emotions.1834, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], chapter XV, in Francesca Carrara. […], volume II, London: Richard Bentley, […], (successor to Henry Colburn), →OCLC, page 172
- Retired when her position was dissolved due to advances in inanimate automation.(Can we date this quote?), Toontown: Corporate Clash Development Team, Manager Profile of the Mouthpiece
- Not alive, and never having been alive, especially not like humans and animals.
- I had worked hard for nearly two years, for the sole purpose of infusing life into an inanimate body.1818, Mary Shelley, chapter 5, in Frankenstein, archived from the original on 31 Oct 2011
- Synonyms:
- non-animate, lifeless, insentient, insensate
- Not animate.
- Antonyms:
- animate
Noun
inanimate (plural inanimates)
- Something that is not alive.
Verb
inanimate (third-person singular simple present inanimates, present participle inanimating, simple past and past participle inanimated)
- To animate.
- For there's a kind of world remaining still, Though shee which did inanimate and fill1621, John Donne, An Anatomy of the World: The First Anniversary
inanimate meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu
inanimate in Hindi
- not alive
- निर्जीव nirjīv
inanimate in Tamil
- உயிரற்ற
inanimate in Marathi
- inanimate, lifeless
- निर्जीव nirjīv
- inanimate
- जड j̈aḍ
inanimate in Urdu
- بےحس, بےجان, کند, مردہ, سست, ٹھس
More languagesFewer languages
- inanimate in Bengali
- নির্জীব, অচেতন, জড়, প্রাণহীন
- inanimate in Malayalam
- അചേതനം, നിർജ്ജീവമായ, ജീവനില്ലാത്ത, അഹൃഷ
- inanimate in Kannada
- ಜೀವವಿಲ್ಲದ, ನಿರ್ಜೀವ, ಉಸಿರಿಲ್ಲದ, ಜಡ
- inanimate in Punjabi
- ਨਿਰਜੀਵ
- inanimate in Gujarati
- જડ jaḍ, નિર્જીવ nirjīv
- inanimate in Odia
- ନିର୍ଜୀବ
- inanimate in Nepali
- निर्जीव
- inanimate in Pashto
- بې سا be sâ
- inanimate in Arabic
- جَامِد jāmid
- Kashmiri
- نےٚ زوٗوؠ ne zūv'
Examples of inanimate in a sentence
- Nouns can be singular or plural, and one of two genders, animate or inanimate.
- This is the complex aggregate of animate and inanimate single-organismic and multi-organismic entities and systems.
- You have even less sense than an inanimate object.
Synonyms of inanimate
17 more synonymsFewer synonyms
Antonyms
Forms of inanimate
| Adjective | |
|---|---|
| comparative | more inanimate |
| superlative | most inanimate |
| Noun | |
| plural | inanimates |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | inanimates |
| present participle | inanimating |
| past participle | inanimated |
| past | inanimated |
Origin of inanimate
Inherited from Middle English inanimat(e), from Late Latin inanimātus, from Latin in- + animātus (“animated”), see -ate (adjective-forming suffix). By surface analysis, in- + animate. The noun was derived by substantivization from the adjective, see -ate (noun-forming suffix).
Borrowed from Latin inanimātus, the perfect passive participle of inanimō (“to animate”) (see -ate (verb-forming suffix)), from in- (“in, into”) + animō (“to animate”); by surface analysis, in- + animate.
Words formed from inanimate
Questions about inanimate
- What does inanimate mean?
- Inanimate means lacking the quality or ability of motion; as an inanimate object.
- What is inanimate in Hindi?
- Inanimate in Hindi is निर्जीव (nirjīv). See Inanimate meaning in Hindi.
- What part of speech is inanimate?
- Inanimate can be an adjective, a noun or a verb.
- How do you pronounce inanimate?
- Inanimate is pronounced /ɪnˈænɪmət/ (UK).
Words near inanimate in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: inanimate (page history and authors); inanimate (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); जड (Marathi) (page history and authors); inanimate (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); Inanimate (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); inanimate (Olam, E.K. Kurup corpus) (dataset and license); inanimate (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors); inanimate (Punjabi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); જડ (Gujarati) (page history and authors); inanimate (Odia, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); inanimate (Nepali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-inanimate.wav.
Cite this entry: “inanimate.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/inanimate. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.