inanimate
Not a creature
Inanimate describes things that are not alive and never have been—rocks, chairs, machines, abstract concepts.
It contrasts with animate, which characterizes living beings capable of self-directed movement or growth.
In grammar, inanimate nouns typically take different pronouns than animate ones; we say it for a table but she or he for a person.
The word often appears in discussions of what distinguishes the living from the nonliving: The line between animate and inanimate blurs with viruses.
Inactive but capable
- latentPresent but inactive
- quiescentInactive but capable
- inactiveNot currently functioning
- idleWithout activity or purpose
resting · fixed · anchored · settled · embedded · implanted · rooted · stable
Deceased human body
expired · inert · still · unmoving · motionless · static · stationary · immobile
Devoid of animation
- flatLacking vertical variation
- expressionlessShowing no feeling
- woodenMade from timber
- blankWithout marks or content
vacant · empty · spiritless · soulless · mechanical · robotic · automaton · hollow
dormant
Inactive but capable
idle · resting · fixed · anchored · settled · embedded · implanted · rooted · stable · insentient
corpse
Deceased human body
defunct · expired · inert · still · unmoving · motionless · static · stationary · immobile · frozen
lifeless
Devoid of animation
- flatLacking vertical variation
- expressionlessShowing no feeling
- woodenMade from timber
blank · vacant · empty · spiritless · soulless · mechanical · robotic · automaton · hollow · void
rock
Solid earthen material
glass · ceramic · concrete · rubber · wood · fabric · paper · steel · aluminum · copper
- existenceexistence, being, lives, reality, life
- states of beingalive, dead, living, existing, conscious
- animacyliving, nonliving, alive, dead, biotic
- grammatical categoriesmasculine, feminine, neuter, singular, plural
- noun grammarnoun, noun phrase, case, declension, noun clause
- verb grammarconjugation, tense, verb form, infinitive, verb tense
animal, animation, animate, animosity, unanimous, animus, magnanimous, reanimate, pusillanimous