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Definition of "inanimate" []

  • Not having the qualities associated with active, living organisms. See Synonyms at dead. (adjective)
  • Not animated or energetic; dull. (adjective)
  • Grammar Belonging to the class of nouns that stand for nonliving things: The word car is inanimate; the word dog is animate. (adjective)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Use "inanimate" in a sentence
  • "Take the terms inanimate, man, white: then take some white things of which man is not predicated-swan and snow: the term inanimate is predicated of all of the one, of none of the other."
  • "He was somewhat of the same temperament as Emmeline -- a dreamer, with a mind tuned to receive and record the fine rays that fill this world flowing from intellect to intellect, and even from what we call inanimate things."
  • "Thus, at the lowest end of the scale, we have what we call inanimate matter, which Aristotle thinks of much as we do, namely, as something occupying space, the different parts of it being endowed with different powers of movement, and with different properties, such as warmth or coldness, wetness or dryness."