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
Synonym Usage
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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Jeremy Thatcher, Dragon Hatcher
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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.
The unpleasant market metaphor refers to the idea that even a lifeless feline when dropped from a height may initially ricochet off the ground.
From MarketWatch • Jun. 9, 2026
We know that movies are just sequences of lifeless images.
From Slate • May 25, 2026
From almost any vantage point, the Salton Sea appears lifeless — a gray expanse rimmed with salt and windblown dust.
From Los Angeles Times • Apr. 7, 2026
Noa-Rose's parents remember vividly holding the "lifeless" youngster in their arms, and the look of fright in the doctor's eyes.
From BBC • Mar. 26, 2026
The sails fell lifeless and quiet, flapping morosely.
From "Homecoming" by Cynthia Voigt
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.
