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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Examples of inanimate in a Sentence

These examples are automatically compiled from online sources to illustrate current usage. Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.
Recent Examples on the Web If pressed, some argue the indignation over the defacement itself betrays how little our culture values the planet when compared to inanimate works of canvas and pigment. Tribune News Service, The Mercury News, 17 Sep. 2024 Visually, black against white and white against black animate the dramatic central figure, distinguishing her from the inanimate corpses that lift her up, like a morbid human pedestal. Christopher Knight, Los Angeles Times, 10 June 2024 The former is the mode of being that categorizes all inanimate and non-conscious objects. Theodore McDarrah, Forbes, 27 Feb. 2024 The film, which introduced the world to Chucky the killer doll with a plot that's as delightfully asinine as its antagonist, stars Catherine Hicks as a desperate mother trying to convince a detective (Chris Sarandon) that her young son (Alex Vincent) was framed for murder by his inanimate playmate. Wesley Stenzel, EW.com, 27 Nov. 2023 See all Example Sentences for inanimate 
Recent Examples of Synonyms for inanimate
Adjective
  • At some point during the assault, the release continues, the suspect grabbed the girl from her bed, knocked her unconscious, then fled.
    Natalie Neysa Alund, USA TODAY, 23 Oct. 2024
  • The opening scenes end with Ena and Alfonso slumped unconscious in their carriage.
    John Hopewell, Variety, 22 Oct. 2024
Adjective
  • 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
  • Jerome Powell and his Federal Reserve colleagues are hardly insensate to the risk that their inflation-fighting actions might bring Mr. Trump back to power.
    Holman W. Jenkins, WSJ, 14 June 2022
Adjective
  • The author renders the four-year-old Margaret’s inner life with sensitive complexity, depicting an alert child logic that defies adults’ view of her as slow and unfeeling.
    The New Yorker, The New Yorker, 12 June 2024
  • That’s because for decades, reptiles have been characterized as cold, unfeeling, and even primitive creatures.
    Lily Carey, Discover Magazine, 8 Apr. 2024
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
  • 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
  • But fans who clicked on an alert, a tweet or even a link shared via text, were shocked to see a cropped image of Payne's lifeless body alongside TMZ's reporting on the singer's death.
    Nicole Fallert, USA TODAY, 18 Oct. 2024
  • The hotel then placed a red tent over his lifeless body, which fell near tables and chairs on the hotel’s patio.
    Amber Corrine, VIBE.com, 17 Oct. 2024

Thesaurus Entries Near inanimate

Cite this Entry

“Inanimate.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/inanimate. Accessed 8 Nov. 2024.

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