INANIMATE Synonyms: 21 Similar and Opposite Words

inanimate

adjective

(ˌ)i-ˈna-nə-mət

Definition of inanimate

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

Synonyms & Similar Words

Relevance

Antonyms & Near Antonyms

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 inanimate Both cameras have extremely sticky tracking systems that focus on the eyes of people, wildlife, pets, and insects, as well as inanimate subjects like trains, planes, automobiles, and motorbikes. — Jim Fisher, PC Magazine, 13 May 2026 But there are inanimate pets in the cemetery. — Jennie Key, Cincinnati Enquirer, 31 Mar. 2026 On the morning after the hurricane, these objects revert to their inanimate status quo—but the deviation has been recorded, as fiction. — Hannah Gold, Harpers Magazine, 24 Mar. 2026 Its lifeworld, its temporal and spatial perspective, contrasts with the human, rendering our characters as distant, as inanimate, as the stelae and sculptures that surround them. — Ben Lerner, The New York Review of Books, 19 Mar. 2026 See All Example Sentences for inanimate

Recent Examples of Synonyms for inanimate

Adjective

Assistant federal defender Stephen Ferrell, the attorney for Christa Pike, said in a Sunday interview with Jake Tapper on CNN’s State of the Union that his client remains unconscious and intubated in a Nashville hospital.

— Claire Carter, The Washington Examiner, 4 Oct. 2026
Being too drunk or high only becomes relevant if the victim was drugged without her consent or knowledge or was unconscious (or otherwise physically unable to communicate unwillingness).

— Ilana Turko, New York Daily News, 4 Oct. 2026

Definition of unconscious

Adjective

This insensate gaze is one that cannot be returned, as Jacques Lacan observed of the camera pointed at him during his performative lecture Télévision, recorded in 1973 and broadcast on prime-time TV in France.

— Jan Tumlir, Artforum, 5 Aug. 2026
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

Definition of insensate

Adjective

Civilizations could have risen to their zenith and crumbled in the time our micrometeoroid spent traversing the unfeeling expanse of interplanetary space, but its demise lasted but a fraction of a second.

— Anthony Wood, Space.com, 21 July 2026
Readers can judge Jane and me, deciding that one of us was unfeeling or uncomprehending.

— Literary Hub, Literary Hub, 13 July 2026

Definition of unfeeling

Adjective

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
Genes are insentient things and cannot be said to have any kind of purposeful selfish or unselfish behavior.

— Quanta Magazine, Quanta Magazine, 14 Sep. 2017

Definition of insentient

Adjective

And at the same time, that image of Faye’s blue face, glazed-over eyes, and lifeless stare is going to follow me for a while.

— Roxana Hadadi, Vulture, 1 Oct. 2026
There’s so much premeditation and passion into doing that, and to actually play that with no music and just the sound and the banality of a lifeless body being hit by some blunt instrument is very viscerally upsetting.

— Jackie Strause, HollywoodReporter, 23 Sep. 2026

Definition of lifeless

Browse Nearby Words

inanes

inanimate

inanimately

See all Nearby Words

Cite this Entry

Style

“Inanimate.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/inanimate. Accessed 10 Oct. 2026.

Copy Citation

Synonyms of inanimate

adjective

Example Sentences

Browse Nearby Words

Cite this Entry

More from Merriam-Webster

Word of the Day

Luddite

Popular in Grammar & Usage

Do You Need a New Language Peeve?

The Exceptions of '-s' and '-es' Plurals

Merriam-Webster’s Great Big List of Words You Love to Hate

Is it 'nerve-racking' or 'nerve-wracking'?

What's the difference between 'fascism' and 'socialism'?

Popular in Wordplay

The Real Origin of 'Supercalifragilistic'

9 Words That Sound Like Insults But Aren't

7 Words for Bad Endings and Rough Situations

The Words of the Week - Oct. 9

Even More Bird Names that Sound Like Insults (and Sometimes Are)

Popular

Do You Need a New Language Peeve?

The Real Origin of 'Supercalifragilistic'

9 Words That Sound Like Insults But Aren't

Games & Quizzes