inertia

Meaning

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

Synonyms

inactivity

inertness

momentum

inaction

immobility

inactiveness

passivity

languor

sloth

🦥

laziness

sluggishness

apathy

insensibility

limpness

listlessness

negligence

remissness

shiftlessness

slackness

slothfulness

spiritlessness

stupor

torpor

vegetativeness

weakness

force of habit

oscitancy

oscitation

surplus power

inertance

nonreactivity

non-excite-ment

vis inertiae

indolency

slackerdom

asthenia

unreactivity

atonia

atony

block

deactivation

dormancy

enervation

flabbiness

habit

impetus

inactively

indolence

Translations

Trägheit

inertie

inercia

inerzia

inércia

αδράνεια

traagheid

inertie

inèrcia

accidia

🦥

indolencia

Massenträgheit

inactivité

Pronounced as (IPA)

/ɪnˈɜː.ʃə/

Etymology

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