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
Wait until these powers are in the hands of an inanimate AI programmed to disfavor or even target conservatives through the vast powers of the federal government.
—
Paul Du Quenoy, MSNBC Newsweek, 26 Mar. 2025
Wait until these powers are in the hands of an inanimate AI programmed to disfavor or even target conservatives through the vast powers of the federal government.
—Paul Du Quenoy, MSNBC Newsweek, 26 Mar. 2025
That’s why horror movies often have these inanimate emblems that are so terrifying.
—Brian Davids, The Hollywood Reporter, 21 Feb. 2025
The delightful Oscar-winning visual effects combine techniques like the sodium vapor process and wirework to give life to Eglantine’s psychedelic flying bed and other inanimate-no-longer objects.
—Savannah Salazar, Vulture, 25 Nov. 2024
See All Example Sentences for inanimate
Paul Du Quenoy, MSNBC Newsweek, 26 Mar. 2025
Wait until these powers are in the hands of an inanimate AI programmed to disfavor or even target conservatives through the vast powers of the federal government.
—Paul Du Quenoy, MSNBC Newsweek, 26 Mar. 2025
That’s why horror movies often have these inanimate emblems that are so terrifying.
—Brian Davids, The Hollywood Reporter, 21 Feb. 2025
The delightful Oscar-winning visual effects combine techniques like the sodium vapor process and wirework to give life to Eglantine’s psychedelic flying bed and other inanimate-no-longer objects.
—Savannah Salazar, Vulture, 25 Nov. 2024
See All Example Sentences for inanimate
Recent Examples of Synonyms for inanimate
Adjective
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Man who caused crash was ‘crying on his knees’ When police arrived at the crash, Brooke was found unconscious and bleeding from her head, according to court documents.—
Amaia Gavica,
Idaho Statesman,
26 June 2025
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Some recounted seeing a man knocked unconscious, a flight attendant who suffered an injury to their arm and another burned by hot water that spilled from the drink cart.—
Colson Thayer,
People.com,
24 June 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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Then, the men had to walk around as these unfeeling, aggressive, hyper-masculine creatures.—
Maureen Lee Lenker,
EW.com,
28 May 2025
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Tabo turns, in his mother’s eyes, into a cold and unfeeling stone.—
Robert Rubsam,
The Atlantic,
24 Mar. 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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Their bodies were found lifeless June 2 with plastic bags over their heads and evidence that their hands had been zip-tied near their father's truck in a campground.—
Natalie Neysa Alund,
USA Today,
26 June 2025
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The following morning, the family discovered the lifeless body of the fourth kitten.—
Lydia Patrick,
MSNBC Newsweek,
24 June 2025
Cite this Entry
“Inanimate.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/inanimate. Accessed 3 Jul. 2025.
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