lifeless
Americanadjective
-
not endowed with life; having no life; inanimate.
lifeless matter.
- Synonyms:
- inorganic
- Antonyms:
- living
-
destitute of living things.
a lifeless planet.
-
deprived of life; dead.
a battlefield strewn with lifeless bodies.
- Synonyms:
- defunct
- Antonyms:
- living
-
without animation, liveliness, or spirit; dull; colorless; torpid.
a lifeless performance of a play.
- Synonyms:
- spiritless, sluggish, passive, inert, inactive
- Antonyms:
- lively
-
insensible, as a person who has fainted.
adjective
-
without life; inanimate; dead
-
not sustaining living organisms
-
having no vitality or animation
-
unconscious
Related Words
See dead.
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of lifeless
before 1000; Middle English lifles, Old English līflēas. See life, -less
Explanation
Someone who's lifeless has died. Your lifeless house plant probably got that way because you forgot to water it. You can use the adjective lifeless to describe once-living things, like people, animals, and plants, and you can also use it for objects that appear inert: "The creepy thing about that painting is the clown's lifeless eyes." Things that are duller or droopier than they should be are also lifeless, like your lifeless hair or a writer's lifeless prose. Less common is using lifeless to mean "with no living things," like the lifeless planet Venus.
Vocabulary lists containing lifeless
Boring
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Empty
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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.
Lifeless and laden with huge containers, the vessel smashed into a support pillar.
From Seattle Times • Mar. 26, 2024
The experience directly inspired the opening track of his new album, Whip On A Lifeless Body.
From BBC • Sep. 14, 2021
“Jupiter’s Lifeless Moons,” which also features three guest musicians, is Mr. Terry’s most narratively structured outing yet, with a plot inspired by his stay in Cleveland last winter.
From New York Times • Jan. 1, 2018
Lifeless fish are washing up on Sri Lanka’s sands, plastic pellets lodged in their gills.
From Washington Post
Lifeless except for overcrowded, overflowing evacuation centers, looking like anthills spaced out at five-mile intervals.
From "Dry" by Neal Shusterman and Jarrod Shusterman
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
