Inactive

How to spell inactive

8 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce inactive

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does inactive mean?

1. adjectiveNot engaged in activity, movement, or operation.

Inactive in a sentence

• The account had been inactive for several months before it was closed.

• A long stretch of inactive days at his desk left him feeling unfit.

Where does inactive come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word is a transparent compound of the negative prefix 'in-', meaning 'not', and the adjective 'active'. The 'active' part traces back to the Latin verb agere, meaning 'to do, to drive, or to set in motion', whose past participle was actus. From actus came the Latin actio and the adjective activus, describing something engaged in doing or moving. English took 'active' through Old French in the 1300s, and the negated form 'inactive' was assembled later, appearing in the 1600s, to describe a thing or person not in motion, not operating, or not engaged. The same agere root sits inside a large family of everyday words such as 'agent', 'agile', 'action', and 'react', which is a useful reminder that the spelling keeps the clear 'act' core intact.

How the word is built

• in- (not)
• act (from Latin actus, 'done, driven')
• -ive (adjective suffix)