as in inertia
lack of action or activity
as a result of the park department's inaction, the city's pools are not ready to open for the summer
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Recent Examples of inaction
Juries are often reluctant to convict law enforcement officers for inaction, as seen after the 2018 school massacre in Parkland, Fla.
—
Valerie Gonzalez, Los Angeles Times, 22 Jan. 2026
Faced with legislative inaction, local governments are stepping into the vacuum.
—The Editorial Board, Chicago Tribune, 22 Jan. 2026
Samuel Hall, president of a nonprofit that investigates child exploitation, warned against inaction.
—Amelia Mugavero, CBS News, 21 Jan. 2026
Unlike the times Fidel Castro maneuvered his way out of crises, Cuba’s current leadership has proved less skillful, more prone to inaction, and notoriously less popular than the late Cuban dictator.
—Nora Gámez Torres, Miami Herald, 21 Jan. 2026
See All Example Sentences for inaction
Valerie Gonzalez, Los Angeles Times, 22 Jan. 2026
Faced with legislative inaction, local governments are stepping into the vacuum.
—The Editorial Board, Chicago Tribune, 22 Jan. 2026
Samuel Hall, president of a nonprofit that investigates child exploitation, warned against inaction.
—Amelia Mugavero, CBS News, 21 Jan. 2026
Unlike the times Fidel Castro maneuvered his way out of crises, Cuba’s current leadership has proved less skillful, more prone to inaction, and notoriously less popular than the late Cuban dictator.
—Nora Gámez Torres, Miami Herald, 21 Jan. 2026
See All Example Sentences for inaction
Recent Examples of Synonyms for inaction
inertia
Noun
-
Ships have real inertia and Newtonian physics, and pilots can choose to toggle flight assistance on to help stabilize their often unpredictable craft, or off to perform mind-bending maneuvers that can be the edge between life and death in high-skill player versus player shootouts.—
Alan Bradley,
Space.com,
31 Jan. 2026
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Bruening believes the market for specific skate types is just too small, the cost of development and rollout too high, and the cultural inertia too strong for some changes.—
Mark Hay,
Popular Science,
28 Jan. 2026
Cite this Entry
“Inaction.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/inaction. Accessed 31 Jan. 2026.
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