Synonym Chooser

How is the word inactive different from other adjectives like it?

Some common synonyms of inactive are idle, inert, passive, and supine. While all these words mean "not engaged in work or activity," inactive applies to anyone or anything not in action or in operation or at work.

on inactive status as an astronaut
inactive accounts

When could idle be used to replace inactive?

In some situations, the words idle and inactive are roughly equivalent. However, idle applies to persons that are not busy or occupied or to their powers or their implements.

workers were idle in the fields

When can inert be used instead of inactive?

The words inert and inactive can be used in similar contexts, but inert as applied to things implies powerlessness to move or to affect other things; as applied to persons it suggests an inherent or habitual indisposition to activity.

inert ingredients in drugs
an inert citizenry

When is it sensible to use passive instead of inactive?

The words passive and inactive are synonyms, but do differ in nuance. Specifically, passive implies immobility or lack of normally expected response to an external force or influence and often suggests deliberate submissiveness or self-control.

passive resistance

When is supine a more appropriate choice than inactive?

The meanings of supine and inactive largely overlap; however, supine applies only to persons and commonly implies abjectness or indolence.

a supine willingness to play the fool

Example Sentences

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Recent Examples of inactive Ohio election officials will begin removing from their rolls thousands of inactive voters that SAVE identified as deceased. Miles Parks, NPR, 10 Sep. 2025 Also inactive is tailback Jaylen Wright (knee), cornerback Ethan Bonner (hamstring), tight end Darren Waller (hip), receiver Tahj Washington (no injury) and defensive tackle Zeek Biggers (no injury). Omar Kelly, Miami Herald, 7 Sep. 2025 Rookie Jordan James’s finger injury placed him on the pregame inactive list. Cam Inman, Mercury News, 7 Sep. 2025 Tremayne may well be inactive early in the season, or at least only playing on special teams. Scott Fowler, Charlotte Observer, 2 Sep. 2025 See All Example Sentences for inactive
Recent Examples of Synonyms for inactive
Adjective
  • Except that four years later, on The Hills, Lauren Conrad passed it up for a guy with frosted tips and sleepy vibes.
    Megan Angelo, Glamour, 11 Sep. 2025
  • New York — Oracle, a large but generally sleepy cloud-computing company, just had an absolutely bonkers day on Wall Street.
    Allison Morrow, CNN Money, 11 Sep. 2025
Adjective
  • Often when faced with a trauma, a redwood will swell a bank of dormant buds and woody tissue to create burls.
    Greg Sullivan, AFAR Media, 15 Sep. 2025
  • Note that plants go dormant in areas that experience hard freezes.
    Kim Toscano, Southern Living, 15 Sep. 2025
Adjective
  • Throughout most of modern history, it was thought that prudent government debt management involved bringing down the ratio of debt to GDP during quiescent periods of growth in order to store fiscal ammunition for the next crisis.
    Kenneth S. Rogoff, Foreign Affairs, 19 Aug. 2025
  • Khanna is one of a number of progressive congressional Democrats encouraged by the party to appear in red-district town halls in an attempt to rebut impressions that the party is quiescent in the face of Trump’s onslaught.
    Andrew Cockburn, Harpers Magazine, 16 July 2025
Adjective
  • Though his request to play in Napa was denied, his off-course involvement is already proving to be a unifying force.
    Devlina Sarkar, MSNBC Newsweek, 12 Sep. 2025
  • However, he was involved in an off-field accident that forced the Royals to shift their pitching plans.
    Kansas City Star, Kansas City Star, 11 Sep. 2025
Adjective
  • Early on, the dull chamber music of the Ferrari 296’s wide-angle V6 gas-electric hybrid powertrain was roundly criticized.
    Mark Ewing, Forbes.com, 10 Sep. 2025
  • Rather than efficiently dicing and slicing your produce, a dull knife actually requires more force, which can cause you or someone else in your household to get hurt.
    BestReviews, Mercury News, 9 Sep. 2025
Adjective
  • In September 2022, schoolteacher Eliza Fletcher was kidnapped during an early morning run, and her body was later found near a vacant duplex.
    Arkansas Online, Arkansas Online, 13 Sep. 2025
  • Each apartment was different from the next, and the vacant unit (one daughter retreated to a Greek island) had views of the sea.
    Keith Flanagan, Architectural Digest, 11 Sep. 2025
Adjective
  • Unlike traditional explosive ordnance, the railgun relies on pure kinetic energy for destructive effect, firing inert projectiles at hypersonic speed.
    Kapil Kajal, Interesting Engineering, 11 Sep. 2025
  • In addition, cover potting soil in an inch-thick layer of small round pebbles or marbles or other inert material.
    Nan Sterman, San Diego Union-Tribune, 6 Sep. 2025
Adjective
  • There’s some idle speculation in the films about where the Xenomorphs sit on the evolutionary ladder, and nearly every Alien story at some point deals with the question of whether synthetic creations care about their makers.
    Noel Murray, Vulture, 10 Sep. 2025
  • The display can smartly scale down to 1Hz when idle and now comes with a new anti-reflective coating.
    Aamir Khollam, Interesting Engineering, 9 Sep. 2025

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Cite this Entry

“Inactive.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/inactive. Accessed 18 Sep. 2025.

More from Merriam-Webster on inactive

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