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
- lifelessly adverb
- lifelessness noun
Etymology
Origin of lifeless
before 1000; Middle English lifles, Old English līflēas. See life, -less
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.
England had vowed that, after lifeless defeats by Scotland and Ireland in the previous two rounds, Rome would be a return to the intensity and intent that marked a successful 2025.
From BBC • Mar. 7, 2026
The few other highlights in the show are overwhelmed by a surfeit of lifeless abstractions, eye-glazing prints and vacuous conceptual works.
From The Wall Street Journal • Mar. 6, 2026
To him those relics are akin to looking at a collection of lifeless butterflies preserved in a box.
From Los Angeles Times • Feb. 23, 2026
Early primary coverage feels so distant with its talk of endorsements, “war chests,” and other lifeless stats.
From Slate • Feb. 7, 2026
The lines of vegetation along their banks are like oases, fertile places where people can farm in an otherwise almost lifeless land.
From "1491" by Charles C. Mann
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.
