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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Example Sentences
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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
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
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
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
See All Example Sentences for inanimate
Recent Examples of Synonyms for inanimate
Adjective
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His head collided with the knee of White Sox second baseman, Al Weiss, and he was knocked unconscious.—
Raymond Daniel Burke,
Baltimore Sun,
29 Mar. 2025
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Francis had ruled out intubation, which would mean being kept unconscious, the leader of the medical team, Dr. Sergio Alfieri, said in an interview.—
Jason Horowitz,
New York Times,
28 Mar. 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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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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After an all-out war between Jacob and his enemies, scores of lifeless bodies are left on the platform in a win for the current and future Duttons, including that of Banner Creighton (Jerome Flynn).—
Jackie Strause,
HollywoodReporter,
6 Apr. 2025
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That renders every emotional moment (what made the original Lion King so terrific) utterly lifeless.—
Barry Levitt,
TIME,
21 Mar. 2025
Cite this Entry
“Inanimate.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/inanimate. Accessed 13 Apr. 2025.
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