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 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
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
That’s why horror movies often have these inanimate emblems that are so terrifying.
—Brian Davids, The Hollywood Reporter, 21 Feb. 2025
See All Example Sentences for inanimate
Savannah Salazar, Vulture, 25 Nov. 2024
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
That’s why horror movies often have these inanimate emblems that are so terrifying.
—Brian Davids, The Hollywood Reporter, 21 Feb. 2025
See All Example Sentences for inanimate
Recent Examples of Synonyms for inanimate
Adjective
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Yet recent research has shown just how quickly initial impressions can form — and just how unconscious our judgments can be.—
Rustin Dodd,
New York Times,
28 Apr. 2025
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Alicia was unconscious after having just been strangled by Valter, while Lejla was trapped inside the chamber, bleeding from banging her head against the glass.—
Jordana Comiter,
People.com,
17 Apr. 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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Mars has not always been a seemingly lifeless red desert.—
ArsTechnica,
ArsTechnica,
18 Apr. 2025
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That’s a great source of tension on its own, but as things descend into a pat, lifeless love triangle, a gentle story gets sapped of some of its power.—
Steve Greene,
IndieWire,
12 Apr. 2025
Cite this Entry
“Inanimate.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/inanimate. Accessed 3 May. 2025.
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