Inactive
adj, noun ·Common ·High school level
Definitions
- 1 A person who does not take action.
"Typically inactives are poorly educated older women. Their lack of education is overwhelmingly the key factor in assigning the inactives to a life devoid of political activity of any sort."
- 1 Not active, temporarily or permanently.
"The volcano is inactive, but is only dormant."
- 2 Not engaging in physical activity.
"[…] exercise in general will lead to dramatic improvements in comparison with an inactive lifestyle."
- 3 Not functioning or operating; broken down
"The photocopier is inactive pending repair."
- 4 Retired from duty or service.
"Admiral Jones is now on the inactive list."
- 5 Relatively inert.
"Aluminium is inactive towards water."
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- 6 Showing no optical activity in polarized light.
"Synthetic glycine is optically inactive as it contains equal amounts of the d- and l- form."
- 1 not active physically or mentally wordnet
- 2 not engaged in full-time work wordnet
- 3 lacking activity; lying idle or unused wordnet
- 4 (pathology) not progressing or increasing; or progressing slowly wordnet
- 5 lacking in energy or will wordnet
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- 6 (of e.g. volcanoes) not erupting and not extinct wordnet
- 7 not exerting influence or change wordnet
- 8 not in physical motion wordnet
- 9 (military) not involved in military operations wordnet
- 10 (chemistry) not participating in a chemical reaction; chemically inert wordnet
Example
More examples"The rain is radiologically inactive this time."
Etymology
From French inactif. See also earlier unactive.
Related phrases
More for "inactive"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.