as in unconscious
lacking animate awareness or sensation
"pathetic fallacy" is the literary term for the ascription of human feelings or motives to inanimate natural elements
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Recent Examples of inanimate
The brightly colored, inanimate pieces are adaptable across all class and ethnicity barriers, just like pop music.
—
Armond White, National Review, 11 Oct. 2024
There were no strict boundaries between space and time, the forces of nature or the animate and inanimate worlds.
—James L. Fitzsimmons, The Conversation, 3 Oct. 2024
That’s why horror movies often have these inanimate emblems that are so terrifying.
—Brian Davids, The Hollywood Reporter, 21 Feb. 2025
Celebrate by having a relaxing bath with your favorite inanimate waterfowl.
—Rosalind Bowling, The Tennessean, 20 Dec. 2024
See All Example Sentences for inanimate
Armond White, National Review, 11 Oct. 2024
There were no strict boundaries between space and time, the forces of nature or the animate and inanimate worlds.
—James L. Fitzsimmons, The Conversation, 3 Oct. 2024
That’s why horror movies often have these inanimate emblems that are so terrifying.
—Brian Davids, The Hollywood Reporter, 21 Feb. 2025
Celebrate by having a relaxing bath with your favorite inanimate waterfowl.
—Rosalind Bowling, The Tennessean, 20 Dec. 2024
See All Example Sentences for inanimate
Recent Examples of Synonyms for inanimate
Adjective
-
The vagus nerve—the part of your nervous system that’s responsible for regulating various unconscious bodily functions like your heart rate, immune response, and digestion—plays a major role in these symptoms.—
Kathleen Ferraro,
SELF,
15 Apr. 2025
-
By the time the wagon arrived at the Western District station, its sixth stop, Gray was unconscious.—
Michelle Deal-Zimmerman,
Baltimore Sun,
12 Apr. 2025
Adjective
-
The brain, like other internal organs, is insensate, its lack of sensory receptors attested by videos of virtuoso violinists who play on unfazed as neurosurgeons go to work inside their skulls.—
Matthew Ponsford,
WIRED,
19 Sep. 2024
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But states have used midazolam alone — and at much higher doses — in executions since 2013, claiming the drug will render people insensate to pain before the administration of other lethal injection drugs.—
Lauren Gill,
ProPublica,
29 Apr. 2023
Adjective
-
Tabo turns, in his mother’s eyes, into a cold and unfeeling stone.—
Robert Rubsam,
The Atlantic,
24 Mar. 2025
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So much modern football is mechanical and unfeeling; Joao Felix is loose and breezy.—
Jack Lang,
The Athletic,
9 Feb. 2025
Adjective
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This is partly because the loss of insentient machinery, no matter how expensive, is easier to stomach than the death of an aircrew.—
Lauren Kahn,
Foreign Affairs,
6 June 2023
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But its shortcomings are essentially those of the novel: its single-track didacticism; its neat pitting of romantic idealists against macho, insentient normies; and the fact that a decisive plot twist can be spotted a mile off.—
Houman Barekat,
New York Times,
29 Mar. 2023
Adjective
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The film tells the story of reed cutter Johan who discovers the lifeless body of a girl on his land and is overcome by an ambiguous sense of guilt.—
Melanie Goodfellow,
Deadline,
14 Apr. 2025
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An autopsy performed Saturday was inconclusive on how a 30-year-old man died after his lifeless body was found on a Near North Side street early that day, according to authorities.—
William Lee,
Chicago Tribune,
12 Apr. 2025
Cite this Entry
“Inanimate.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/inanimate. Accessed 24 Apr. 2025.
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