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
Synonyms & Similar Words
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Antonyms & Near Antonyms
Example Sentences
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Recent Examples of inanimate
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
Evident before us and present in all matter—animate and inanimate—is the atom.
—Pravir Malik, Forbes, 1 Oct. 2024
If pressed, some argue the indignation over the defacement itself betrays how little our culture values the planet when compared to inanimate works of canvas and pigment.
—Tribune News Service, The Mercury News, 17 Sep. 2024
Visually, black against white and white against black animate the dramatic central figure, distinguishing her from the inanimate corpses that lift her up, like a morbid human pedestal.
—Christopher Knight, Los Angeles Times, 10 June 2024
See all Example Sentences for inanimate 
James L. Fitzsimmons, The Conversation, 3 Oct. 2024
Evident before us and present in all matter—animate and inanimate—is the atom.
—Pravir Malik, Forbes, 1 Oct. 2024
If pressed, some argue the indignation over the defacement itself betrays how little our culture values the planet when compared to inanimate works of canvas and pigment.
—Tribune News Service, The Mercury News, 17 Sep. 2024
Visually, black against white and white against black animate the dramatic central figure, distinguishing her from the inanimate corpses that lift her up, like a morbid human pedestal.
—Christopher Knight, Los Angeles Times, 10 June 2024
See all Example Sentences for inanimate
Recent Examples of Synonyms for inanimate
Adjective
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An unidentified woman in her 70s was found unconscious in the back seat behind the driver following the crash.—
Thomas Tracy,
New York Daily News,
14 Feb. 2025
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On the SmackDown episode that aired on November 24, Cargill was found unconscious, bloodied, and left on the hood of a car.—
Kristan Hawkins,
Newsweek,
6 Feb. 2025
Adjective
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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
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Human failings amidst an unfeeling snowpocalypse make for some engaging scenes.—
Ars Technica,
Ars Technica,
22 Dec. 2024
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The author renders the four-year-old Margaret’s inner life with sensitive complexity, depicting an alert child logic that defies adults’ view of her as slow and unfeeling.—
The New Yorker,
The New Yorker,
12 June 2024
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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One victim died in a townhouse where his attackers partied next to his lifeless body.—
James Barron,
New York Times,
11 Feb. 2025
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The film stars Ha Jung-woo as Min-tae, a former gangster who discovers his brother Seok-tae’s lifeless body and learns that Seok-tae’s wife, Moon-young (played by Yoo Da-in), has disappeared.—
Naman Ramachandran,
Variety,
10 Feb. 2025
Thesaurus Entries Near inanimate
Cite this Entry
“Inanimate.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/inanimate. Accessed 20 Feb. 2025.
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