as in inanimate
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Recent Examples of nonliving
Searching for water vapor rather than just heat, van Breugel and his coauthors point out, could keep the insects from wasting their time on warm but nonliving objects such as dark rocks.
—
Elizabeth Preston, Discover Magazine, 21 Aug. 2015
Phosphine, the argument goes, is not generally expected to be produced, or to survive for very long, in the abiotic (nonliving) chemistry anticipated for this part of Venus’s environment.
—Caleb A. Scharf, Scientific American, 5 Oct. 2020
Elizabeth Preston, Discover Magazine, 21 Aug. 2015
Phosphine, the argument goes, is not generally expected to be produced, or to survive for very long, in the abiotic (nonliving) chemistry anticipated for this part of Venus’s environment.
—Caleb A. Scharf, Scientific American, 5 Oct. 2020
Recent Examples of Synonyms for nonliving
inanimate
Adjective
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Partners View all partners Tropical reefs might look like inanimate rock, but these colorful seascapes are built by tiny jellyfish-like animals called corals.—
Noam Vogt-Vincent,
The Conversation,
6 June 2025
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Still, what separates living, breathing beings from inanimate matter remains frustratingly set in my mind.—
Elizabeth Rush,
The Atlantic,
26 May 2025
Cite this Entry
“Nonliving.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/nonliving. Accessed 20 Jun. 2025.
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