How to Use inanimate in a Sentence
inanimate
adjective-
The key is to keep inanimate things in their proper place.
—Arthur C. Brooks, The Atlantic, 6 Oct. 2022
-
But on the bright-ish side, an inanimate object can never leave them (that still feels dark).
—Lester Fabian Brathwaite, EW.com, 18 Feb. 2022
-
As the minutes pressed on, the gentle hum of the computer sounded dull and inanimate.
—Aaron Peter, Wired, 15 Nov. 2020
-
Yes, true, my device may be inanimate in the narrow technical sense of the term.
—Joe Queenan, WSJ, 4 Mar. 2021
-
And if there aren’t enough animals in our lives, inanimate objects have been brought to life.
—Peter Hartlaub, SFChronicle.com, 7 June 2020
-
Sometimes, inanimate objects can be there for us in a way that people can’t.
—Lindsey Lanquist, SELF, 18 Dec. 2017
-
Greg Dear Greg: Here's to Muffin, and all the other stuffed or inanimate friends who help their keepers to cope with life's challenges.
—Amy Dickinson, oregonlive, 16 Mar. 2020
-
The fact that the virus can be viable on inanimate objects such as bedsheets also adds to concerns.
—Naomi Thomas and Neeraj G. Patel, CNN, 9 Aug. 2022
-
The way that the sound bounces off of the other objects in the room can tell us whether the person is standing next to a living thing versus an inanimate object.
—Gary Stix, Scientific American, 27 Oct. 2021
-
For inanimate objects, books have a tendency to eat a lot.
—Trevor Fraser, orlandosentinel.com, 12 Nov. 2019
-
The snowy skin, meanwhile, is an anomaly in the boundary between the body of a living man and his inanimate surroundings.
—Jeremy England, WSJ, 24 Sep. 2020
-
Not even inanimate objects can bear to watch Chatwood pitch.
—Steve Rosenbloom, chicagotribune.com, 20 June 2018
-
In fact, the only eyes that seemed to observe much of anything at the Sicilian Lotus were inanimate.
—Time, 12 Dec. 2022
-
Frasier, like Loveless, noticed how Cochran’s work was able to bring out the soul of inanimate objects and people alike.
—John Canale, cleveland, 23 May 2022
-
Putting a mask on these inanimate objects shifted them to a new context: the present, rather than the historical past.
—Hua Hsu, The New Yorker, 15 Sep. 2020
-
Or perhaps there is some inanimate object in the bushes that approximates the shape of a dog.
—Lance Eliot, Forbes, 24 May 2021
-
That duty drew him to the end point of the modern reverie: the fatal crash, which fuses the animate and the inanimate, compressing bone, skin, and steel.
—Justin Davidson, Curbed, 22 July 2021
-
That way, no animals or inanimate objects will be harmed in the making of your special treats.
—Cathryne Keller, SELF, 7 Dec. 2022
-
Even on inanimate objects, oral can be one of the most rewarding and intimate parts of getting it on.
—Sophie Saint Thomas, refinery29.com, 20 June 2019
-
Now, over the past two months, videos showing Borzois, and inanimate objects that look like them, have taken over TikTok.
—Daysia Tolentino, NBC News, 17 Jan. 2023
-
As in the first Toy Story, inanimate objects are often the most impressive.
—Joyce Slaton, WIRED, 22 Nov. 1999
-
The lyre was infused with magic, powerful enough to charm people and even inanimate objects like trees, streams, and rocks.
—Ineye Komonibo, refinery29.com, 3 Sep. 2020
-
Bellatine has an even more uncanny gift: the ability to bring inanimate objects to life with the touch of her hands.
—Wendy Smith, Washington Post, 27 Sep. 2022
-
The rest of the dialogue is voiced too, including the inanimate objects that speak, such as Harry’s necktie.
—Washington Post, 19 Mar. 2021
-
And sometimes, at least on Earth, living things chisel inanimate things.
—Charlie Wood, Popular Science, 8 Mar. 2021
-
The tardigrades will arrive on the station in a frozen inanimate state, then be thawed out, revived and grown in a special bioculture system.
—Ashley Strickland, CNN, 26 May 2021
-
Anna describe her first kiss as alienlike and tells Josie there’s no shame in making out with inanimate objects.
—Alejandra Gularte, Vulture, 14 Dec. 2021
-
Certain icons, both living and inanimate, came up frequently: the ferry, the Verrazzano, the Wu-Tang Clan.
—Joe Delessio, Curbed, 28 Sep. 2021
-
Early on in the raunchy talking-animals comedy Strays, a montage plays of four dogs humping inanimate lawn ornaments, guzzling beer leaking from trash bags, and bonding over a plan to bite off a man’s genitals.
—Shirley Li, The Atlantic, 19 Aug. 2023
-
Even inanimate bodies engage in unfiltered embrace, as with two mannequins, plastic legs intertwined and plastic faces nearly touching, on display in a storefront window.
—Nicole Acheampong, The Atlantic, 15 Mar. 2023
Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'inanimate.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.
Last Updated: