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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Examples 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.
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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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One person was unconscious on the way to the hospital, the outlet reported.Escher Walcott, People.com, 5 Jan. 2025
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The man was unconscious and officers also assisted in giving him first aid.Forum News Service, Twin Cities, 5 Jan. 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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Her house is pristine and lifeless, reflecting Pansy’s own sense of joylessness.Emily Zemler, Los Angeles Times, 7 Jan. 2025
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Overly minimalistic spaces, while once celebrated, now risk feeling cold and lifeless, lacking the layers that make a home truly engaging.Elise Taylor, Vogue, 6 Jan. 2025
Thesaurus Entries Near inanimate
Cite this Entry
“Inanimate.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/inanimate. Accessed 17 Jan. 2025.
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