inertia

English dictionary entry

Meanings

noun

The property of a body that resists any change to its uniform motion; equivalent to its mass.
In a person, unwillingness to take action.
Lack of activity; sluggishness; said especially of the uterus, when, in labour, its contractions have nearly or wholly ceased.

Pronunciation

/ɪnˈɜː.ʃə/ /ɪˈnɜː.ʃə/ LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-inertia.wav /ɪnˈɝ.ʃə/ /ɪˈnɝ.ʃə/ LL-Q1860 (eng)-Simplificationalizer-inertia.wav

Word forms

inertia inertias inertiae inertiæ

Etymology

From Latin inertia (“lack of art or skill, inactivity, indolence”), from iners (“unskilled, inactive”), from in- (“without, not”) + ars (“skill, art”). Something close to the modern physics sense was first used in New Latin by Johannes Kepler.

Synonyms

Related words

inert inertness

Derived words

bureaucratic inertia center of inertia centre of inertia entreprenertia inertial inertialess inertia selling inertia time inertia welding microinertia moment of inertia practico-inertia uterine inertia

This entry uses open data from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA/GFDL). Word forms are used for search and are not indexed as separate pages.

Back to search All on I Russian dictionary Dahl dictionary