noun
adjective
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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.
On the water, teenagers jostle for control of an inflatable mattress -- the kind taken down sleep on in underground metro stations during Russia's nightly barrages.
From Barron's • Jun. 30, 2026
"It's too early to tell," he said, clutching an inflatable palm tree as students prepared for the Stanford graduation tradition known as the "Wacky Walk".
From BBC • Jun. 23, 2026
He’ll probably put an inflatable bouncy castle in the Capitol building, and I’m actually perfectly fine with that.
From Slate • Jun. 18, 2026
Another block and a half lands you at Barriles, decorated in Colombian flags and giant inflatable soccer balls while salsa blares at stupefying volume from the speakers.
From The Wall Street Journal • Jun. 11, 2026
The heat at home was set to a normal sixty-seven degrees and there were no inflatable flamingos on the porch.
From "P.S. I Miss You" by Jen Petro-Roy
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.
