inanimate

UK/ɪnˈænɪmət/US/ɪnˈænɪmeɪt/

adjectiveB2+Occasional — familiar, but not everyday · #9,300 of 15,258neutral

Inanimate means not alive. An inanimate object, inanimate matter, inanimate nature.

An inanimate object is the standard phrase, and it usually appears when somebody is being told off for losing their temper with one. In grammar, some languages sort every noun into animate and inanimate, and which side a thing falls on is not always obvious.

Definitions of inanimate

1adjectiveinanimateNot alive.B2+
“The toddler chatted to every inanimate object in the room, even the chairs.”

inanimate is a state.

Where it comes from

Latin inanimatus, in-, not, plus animatus, from anima, breath or soul.

Proto-Indo-European
*h₂enh₁-
Latin
inanimātus
Middle English
inanimate
English, today
inanimate

Built from

animātus · Latin — animated

Middle English inanimate, from Latin inanimātus, from Latin in- + animātus (“animated”), see -ate. by surface analysis, in- + animate. The noun was derived by substantivization from the adjective, see -ate.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practise this word

inanimate in the wild

In order to survive, an animal must be able to quickly and accurately distinguish between its sexual partners, rivals, predators, animals that it eats, etc., and inanimate objects.
Animacy
Neither plant nor bird, excepting a few condors wheeling around the higher pinnacles, distracted my attention from the inanimate mass.
The Voyage of the Beagle· Charles Darwin

From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.

From Project Gutenberg, public domain. These sentences are from real books, shown to illustrate the word at work.

Related words

the animātus family

inanimate

inanimate — used about once every 4,394 pages · #9,300 · point at the bar for the others

← Vocabulary

inanimate

UK/ɪnˈænɪmət/US/ɪnˈænɪmeɪt/

adjectiveB2+Occasional — familiar, but not everyday · #9,300 of 15,258neutral

Inanimate means not alive. An inanimate object, inanimate matter, inanimate nature.

Definitions of inanimate

1adjectiveinanimateNot alive.B2+
“The toddler chatted to every inanimate object in the room, even the chairs.”

inanimate is a state.

Where it comes from

Latin inanimatus, in-, not, plus animatus, from anima, breath or soul.

Proto-Indo-European
*h₂enh₁-
Latin
inanimātus
Middle English
inanimate
English, today
inanimate

Built from

animātus · Latin — animated

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practise this word

inanimate in the wild

In order to survive, an animal must be able to quickly and accurately distinguish between its sexual partners, rivals, predators, animals that it eats, etc., and inanimate objects.
Animacy
Neither plant nor bird, excepting a few condors wheeling around the higher pinnacles, distracted my attention from the inanimate mass.
The Voyage of the Beagle· Charles Darwin

From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.

From Project Gutenberg, public domain. These sentences are from real books, shown to illustrate the word at work.

Related words

the animātus family

inanimate

inanimate — used about once every 4,394 pages · #9,300 · point at the bar for the others