inertia
/ɪnˈɜː.ʃə/US/ɪnˈɝ.ʃə/
More pronunciations (1)Fewer pronunciations
inertia noun: the property of a body that resists any change to its uniform motion; equivalent to its mass.
Noun
inertia (countable and uncountable, plural inertias or inertiae or inertiæ)
- The property of a body that resists any change to its uniform motion; equivalent to its mass.
- In a person, unwillingness to take action.
- Men […] have immense irresolution and inertia.1837, Thomas Carlyle, chapter II, in The French Revolution: A History […], volume III (The Guillotine), London: James Fraser, […], →OCLC, book IV (Terror)
- Not all the surviving veteran chiefs would actually fight. Some remained nominally in the resistance but in practice delayed at their bases, pretexting a lack of ammunition for their uncertain inertia.1970 August 12 [1969 January 15], John Womack, Jr., Zapata and the Mexican Revolution, New York: Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, →ISBN, →LCCN, →OCLC, →OL, page 261
- Synonyms:
- idleness, laziness, sloth, slothfulness
- Lack of activity; sluggishness; said especially of the uterus, when, in labour, its contractions have nearly or wholly ceased.
inertia meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu
inertia in Hindi
- in physics
- अक्रियता akriytā
- unwillingness to take action
- निष्क्रियता niṣkriytā
inertia in Tamil
- in physics
- சடத்துவம் caṭattuvam, நிலைமம் nilaimam
inertia in Marathi
- जडत्व, जडता
inertia in Urdu
- دم, جمود, مہجولیت, سکون, زور
More languagesFewer languages
- inertia in Bengali
- জড়তা
- inertia in Telugu
- జడత్వము jaḍatvamu
- inertia in Malayalam
- ജഡത്വം jaḍatvaṁ
- inertia in Kannada
- ನಿಲ್ಮೆ, ಕದಲುತಡೆ, ಜಡತ್ವ, ಮಾಂದ್ಯ
- inertia in Punjabi
- ਜਡ਼ਤਾ, ਜਡ਼੍ਹਾਪਣ
- inertia in Gujarati
- જડતા, જડ઼તા
- inertia in Odia
- ଜଡ଼ତା, ଜଡତା
- inertia in Nepali
- जडता, जड़ता, जडत्व
- inertia in Tagalog
- tigal
- inertia in Arabic
- عَطَالَة ʕaṭāla
- inertia in Malay
- inersia
- inertia in Thai
- ความเฉื่อย kwaam-chʉ̀ai, ความเฉื่อยชา
- inertia in Vietnamese
- quán tính
Examples of inertia in a sentence
- The large rotational inertia of the heavy compressor and turbine rotors makes the engine slow to spool up from idle.
- It is characterized by low rotor inertia, no drift, and nonaccumulative positioning error.
- For accurate stopping, the drive must incorporate means for minimizing inertia overdrift.
Synonyms of inertia
Forms of inertia
| plural | inertias |
|---|---|
| plural | inertiae |
| plural | inertiæ |
Origin of inertia
From Latin inertia (“lack of art or skill, inactivity, indolence”), from iners (“unskilled, inactive”), from in- (“without, not”) + ars (“skill, art”). Something close to the modern physics sense was first used in New Latin by Johannes Kepler.
Words formed from inertia
Phrases with inertia
Words that rhyme with inertia
Questions about inertia
- What does inertia mean?
- Inertia means the property of a body that resists any change to its uniform motion; equivalent to its mass.
- What is inertia in Hindi?
- Inertia in Hindi is अक्रियता (akriytā), निष्क्रियता (niṣkriytā). See Inertia meaning in Hindi.
- What part of speech is inertia?
- Inertia is a noun.
- How do you pronounce inertia?
- Inertia is pronounced /ɪnˈɜː.ʃə/ (UK).
- What is the plural of inertia?
- The plural of inertia is inertias.
Words near inertia in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: inertia (page history and authors); inertia (Marathi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); inertia (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); inertia (Bengali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); inertia (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors); inertia (Punjabi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); inertia (Gujarati, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); inertia (Odia, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); inertia (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.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-inertia.wav, LL-Q1860 (eng)-Simplificationalizer-inertia.wav.
Cite this entry: “inertia.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/inertia. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.