Animacy

noun

noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    The state of being alive. uncountable, usually

    "These may differ radically in their linguistic animacy, as briefly discussed above, without this having any consequences for their biological animacy."

  2. 2
    In some languages, the characteristic of a noun, dependent on its living or sentient nature, which affects grammatical features (it can modify verbs used with the noun, affect the noun's declension, etc.). uncountable, usually

Example

More examples

"These may differ radically in their linguistic animacy, as briefly discussed above, without this having any consequences for their biological animacy."

Etymology

From animate + -cy.

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.