- dead
- dead adj Dead, defunct, deceased, departed, late, lifeless, inanimate all mean devoid of life.Dead applies strictly to anyone or to anything that has been deprived of life and has therefore ceased to grow or to function{
a dead person
}{a dead animal
}{a dead tree
}{every plant in the garden is dead as a result of the intensely severe winter
}Dead is also applicable to things which have not had life (in its literal sense) but have existed for a time and have been used or accepted or have proved effective or influential; thus, a dead language is no longer in spoken use by any people; a dead belief no longer has any acceptance; a dead journal no longer is printed and circulated; a dead issue or question no longer arouses interest or debate. Figuratively the term implies lack or loss of sensation, consciousness, feeling, activity, energy, or any of the qualities associated with life{dead fingers
}{a dead engine
}{a dead cigar
}{the dead season in a business
}Defunct differs little in its literal sense from dead, except that it is somewhat bookish{Charlotte had entered society in her mother's turned garments, and shod with satin sandals handed down from a defunct aunt— Wharton
}The term is more often applied to a thing that by failure or dissolution has ceased to function or to operate{a defunct newspaper
}{a defunct corporation
}Deceased applies only to a person and especially to one who has died comparatively recently or who, though dead, is at the moment under consideration especially in some legal context{laws prohibiting the marriage of a man with his deceased wife's sister
}{the legal heirs of the deceased millionaire were never found
}Departed is distinctly euphemistic (especially in religious use){pray for the souls of departed relatives and friends
}Late is used in place of deceased or departed especially when stressing a relationship to a surviving person or an existent institution{under the terms of his late father's will
}{the late chairman of the board of directors
}{the late master of the house
}Lifeless, unlike the preceding words, does not necessarily imply deprivation of life, for it is applicable not only to something literally dead but also to something which never had life or is incapable of life. In comparison with dead, however, lifeless stresses the absence (sometimes, when loss of consciousness is implied, the apparent absence) of the phenomena characteristic of being alive; thus, one speaks of a dead man, but a lifeless body (that is, a body that shows no signs of life){there in the twilight cold and grey, lifeless, but beautiful, he lay— Longfellow
}In its extended use lifeless is especially applicable to things (far less often to persons) that have not or never have had vitality, power, or spirit{a lifeless color
}{a lifeless poem
}{she has been lifeless since her recovery from a prolonged illness
}{dull lifeless mechanical systems that treat people as if they were things— Wilde
}{monochrome is a starved and lifeless term to express the marvellous range and subtlety of tones of which . . . Chinese ink is capable— Binyon
}Inanimate is more consistently used than lifeless in describing something which never had life; it is the preferred term when a contrast between that which is devoid of life and that which possesses life is expressed or implied{objects which consist of inanimate matter— Jeans
}{a transition . . . from the inorganic to the organic, from the inanimate to the living— Inge
}{harnessing inanimate power to carry us and our burdens— Furnas
}But inanimate is also applicable in extended use to that which is spiritless, inactive, or not lively, and therefore dull{an inanimate style
}{her inanimate movement when on the stage— Yeats
}Antonyms: aliveContrasted words: *living
New Dictionary of Synonyms. 2014.
