Inorganic

How to spell inorganic

9 letters · 4 syllables

How to pronounce inorganic

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does inorganic mean?

1. adjectiveOf mineral origin; not derived from living matter and, in chemistry, generally lacking carbon-hydrogen bonds.
2. adjectiveNot arising naturally as part of a connected whole; artificial or forced in development.

Inorganic in a sentence

• The soil sample was rich in inorganic salts such as nitrates and phosphates.

• Critics felt the company's rapid expansion was inorganic and unsustainable.

• The laboratory separated the inorganic compounds from the carbon-based ones.

• The dialogue in the script sounded stilted and inorganic.

Where does inorganic come from?

Language of origin: Greek

This word is built from 'organic' with the negative prefix 'in-', meaning 'not'. The core lies in the Greek 'organon', which literally meant a tool or instrument, and which came to describe a working part of the body, an organ. Latin took this up as 'organicus', and by the early 1600s English had 'organic' for things relating to living organs and bodies. As chemistry matured in the late 1700s and early 1800s, scientists drew a sharp line between substances produced by living things (organic) and those of mineral origin (inorganic), and the term 'inorganic' was coined to fill that role. The spelling trap is purely the unstressed middle: writers hear an 'or' but the 'organ' root keeps it as 'organ', and the prefix is plain 'in-', not 'un-'.

How the word is built

• in- (not)
• organ (from Greek organon: instrument, tool, bodily organ)
• -ic (adjective suffix)