Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- adj. Unable to move or act.
- adj. Sluggish in action or motion; lethargic. See Synonyms at inactive.
- adj. Chemistry Not readily reactive with other elements; forming few or no chemical compounds.
- adj. Having no pharmacologic or therapeutic action.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- Having no inherent power of action, motion, or resistance; without inherent force; inanimate; lifeless: applied to matter in its intrinsic character: as, an inert mass of clay; an inert corpse.
- Indisposed or unable to move or act; inactive; sluggish: as, an inert drug.
Wiktionary
- adj. Unable to move or act; inanimate.
- adj. Sluggish or lethargic.
- adj. In chemistry, not readily reacting with other elements or compounds.
- adj. Having no therapeutic action.
- n. chemistry A substance that does not react chemically.
GNU Webster's 1913
- adj. Destitute of the power of moving itself, or of active resistance to motion.
- adj. Indisposed to move or act; very slow to act; sluggish; dull; inactive; indolent; lifeless.
- adj. Not having or manifesting active properties; not affecting other substances when brought in contact with them; powerless for an expected or desired effect.
WordNet 3.0
- adj. slow and apathetic
- adj. unable to move or resist motion
- adj. having only a limited ability to react chemically; chemically inactive
Etymologies
- From French inerte, from Latin iners ("inactive, inert"). (Wiktionary)
- Latin iners, inert- : in-, not; see in-1 + ars, skill; see ar- in Indo-European roots. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“Merck said small pieces of the shrink wrap, which it called an "inert carbon material," can stick to the inside of product vials and turn brown during the sterilization process.”
The Wall Street Journal: Shrink Wrap Found in Merck Vaccines
“And what we know as inert matter, this is only the result of death in individuals, it is the dead bodies of individuals decomposed and resmelted between the hammer and anvil, fire and sand of the sun and the moon.”
“Yet Shield limps out of the gate, inert from the first frame and devoid of suspense.”
“Potential intelligence, like potential, can remain inert forever.”
“If you took away just one proton, you would have flourine, a gas which, far from being inert, is highly reactive and dangerous.”
“As a chemical kineticist and photochemist, I knew that such a molecule could not remain inert in the atmosphere forever, if only because solar photochemistry at high altitudes would break it down.”
“A reaction induced on the laboratory bench may, like yeast in inert dough, leaven the whole of mankind, lightening and lifting it to heights undreamed of by its ancestors.”
“After a long time, Secotan, who had lain inert where he had been thrown into the boat, got to his knees and took up the second paddle.”
“a certain form of exertion and action, -- I shall grant, of course, that nothing whatever that exists is in that sense inert; but I shall affirm that you use the word inert in quite a different sense from the usual one.”
“If I have what seems like a terrific idea for a story and no idea how to end it, I know that it’s a binary explosive: the idea I have will remain inert until it meets up with some other idea that directs it towards a specific end.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘inert’.
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1100
abound, technology, branch of knowled..., prognosticate, automaton, matron, an older married ..., realm, special field of ..., kingdom, annals, historical records and 981 more...
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GRE 2014
abate, abdicate, abase, aberrant, abeyance, abhor, abjure, abortive, abound, abrasive, abreast, abridge and 1577 more...
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GRE Barrons Wordlist
A complete Barron's Wordlist for GRE preparation. Your online flashcard replacement.
abase, abash, abate, abbreviate, abdicate, aberrant, aberration, abet, abeyance, abhor, abject, abjure and 4087 more...
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Muse's tacet ,to learn
Music brings silence's to raging thoughts and temperament , calm, as it is our object of definite purpose.
tacet, cadence, tempo, treble clef, penultimate, lexicon, origin, orchestra, kantele, magus, eros, coalesce and 248 more...
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GRE Barron's 800
zealot, wistful, welter, wary, whimsical, warranted, vortex, vivisection, volatile, vitiate, viscous, visage and 787 more...
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gre
municipal, whit, dissembler, berate, liberally, embellish, dissimilitude, histrionics, flamboyance, bombastic, bovine, calumny and 142 more...
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ghost
This is Ghost List 2 ( the kind that go 'boo!' ) :P
( open list )
more:
http://www.wordnik.com/lists/macabrephantom, spectral, specter, spectre, spooky, poltergeist, haunt, spirit, banshee, cryptic, shadow, phantasm and 311 more...
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Words build meanings from origins( et...
These come from gamma meditation ,I think.
discursive, exogenous, machinations, purportedly, sumptuous, congruity, cantankerous, incongruous, festoon, hessian, ratiocinative, stratigraphic and 2046 more...
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man gre
abase, abeyance, abreast, abscission, abscond, abyss, accede, accretion, acerbic, acidulous, acumen, adulterate and 481 more...
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GRE 1100
drudgery, implore, hapless, nuance, wrest, incipient, inadvertent, tremulous, bristle, euphemism, disdain, pugnacious and 346 more...
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big book gre
abase, abbess, abbey, abbot, abdicate, abdomen, abdominal, abduction, abed, aberration, abet, abeyance and 6689 more...
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gre2
aberrant, aberration, aboveboard, abrasive, abstemious, acme, admonish, affable, affluent, alacrity, allegory, alleviate and 1824 more...
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intueri's Words
inveigle, dolorous, archly, feckless, resplendent, concatenation, peripatetic, delightful, cookie, fey, ephemeral, effervescent and 347 more...
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Hit Parade GRE
Princeton Review words
abscond, aberrant, alacrity, anomaly, approbation, arduous, assuage, audacious, austere, axiomatic, canonical, capricious and 287 more...
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Reading Vocab
ulterior, warrant, syllogism, precious, impiety, maroon, aigrette, batiste, topsy-turvy ago, midnight crush, cantankerous, slovenly and 180 more...
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Words from Moby Dick
frigate, presumptuous, genteel, succor, hearthstone, gentry, factitious, bilious, insurgent, portent, enervate, genuflect and 303 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for inert.
Telofy A nerd is never inert. Sep 28, 2008