inanimate

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

Rice cakes join a long list of inanimate objects that time-poor young Chinese have jokingly adopted for low-maintenance companionship in recent years, ranging from mango pits, to rocks, to cardboard dogs.

From Barron's • Feb. 5, 2026

Stella's Gingerbread house plushie is an "Amuseable", a line of toys with tiny faces modelled on inanimate objects from toilet rolls to boiled eggs.

From BBC • Jan. 3, 2026

The tin was only an inanimate object; but in reframing its meaning, she has reopened her heart.

From The Wall Street Journal • Nov. 21, 2025

Driven or driverless, the car is the most animated of inanimate objects, sometimes literally a cartoon, with a voice, a personality, a name.

From Los Angeles Times • May 16, 2025

Over time he had acquired the ability to blend into the background of wherever he was—into bookshelves, gardens, curtains, doorways, streets—to appear inanimate, almost invisible to the untrained eye.

From "The God of Small Things" by Arundhati Roy