noun
adjective
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of inflatable
Explanation
Something inflatable can be blown up or filled with air. A balloon is inflatable — you can either blow it up, or fill it with helium so that it floats. Car tires are inflatable, and so are beach balls, bicycle inner tubes, floating pool toys, bouncy castles, air mattresses, and some lightweight boats. If you're in a car accident, the inflatable air bag will fill quickly to protect you from hitting the dashboard. The adjective inflatable comes from the Latin inflare, "to blow into or puff up."
Vocabulary lists containing inflatable
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.
See Examples For:
The Boeing 747 gifted by Qatar to serve as Donald Trump's presidential jet experienced a takeoff delay Wednesday as inspectors checked one of its inflatable slides used for emergency evacuations.
From Barron's ● Sep. 9, 2026
At the center of the diapered frenzy, bouncing around on stage alongside a giant stack of inflatable rings, was Lenny Pearce.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 2, 2026
"It's not our problem, really," he told AFP as he sat in his inflatable boat on the lake.
From Barron's ● Aug. 27, 2026
Early on Saturday, Spanish officials said they began installing a makeshift, inflatable barrier that extends out some 500 yards from a breakwater where some of the migrants had swum into the enclave.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 1, 2026
Unable to grasp the potential benefits of the inflatable chamber and terrified of it, Ngawang asked that a Buddhist lama be summoned.
From "Into Thin Air" by Jon Krakauer
Elsewhere, locals flocked to the Canal Saint-Martin in the north of the city, some with inflatables, after the authorities allowed swimming there due to the heat.
From Barron's ● Jun. 25, 2026
By late October, his group had bought more than 350 outfits, and is planning a "pipeline" to send supplies to other cities where inflatables have been used at protests.
From BBC ● Dec. 27, 2025
“I still have customers to this day who say, ‘Please put the inflatables out again,’ but they don’t understand they take forever to dry.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 18, 2025
If you’re looking to go big on your decor, skeletons, gravestones and inflatables are perfect to transform your home into a real-life haunted house.
From Salon ● Oct. 30, 2025
The DC inflatables were not powerful as symbols the way the Portland frog is; their absurdity did not clash so dramatically against their fellow goofy marchers.
From Slate ● Oct. 19, 2025
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.
