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inanimate

adjective

Simple meaning

Not being, and never having been alive.

Pronunciation

Say it like this:

ihnanuhmuht

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US device voice
IPA pronunciation (US)

ɪˈnænəmət

This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.

IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.

Word Review

Definition

Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.

adjective

  1. Not being, and never having been alive, especially not like humans and animals.

  2. Lacking the quality or ability of motion; as an inanimate object.

  3. grammar

    Not animate.

  4. Not endowed with life

Word at a Glance

Difficulty
C2 · Proficient
Frequency
Rare
Typical Use
Primarily written

Word Aura™

How this word commonly comes across.

Aura for this meaning

This meaning: Not being, and never having been alive, especially not like humans and animals.

Used this way, inanimate is a reasonably familiar word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It usually sounds natural in a wide range of settings.

Emotional tone
Neutral
Formality
Neutral
Intensity
Not strongly marked
How common
Moderately common
Connotation
No strong connotation
Usage feel
Neutral and straightforward

Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.

More ways to use inanimate

  • “The word `car' is inanimate.”adjective

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Common Patterns and Combinations

How this word naturally appears with others.

Never

inanimate bodyinanimate creation

Lacking

inanimate object

Other combinations

inanimate natureinanimate matterinanimate worldinanimate energyinanimate form

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More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin

Synonyms

Sense: not being or and never having been alive

deadnonliving

Antonyms

Sense: not being or and never having been alive

animateTechnical

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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.