Skip to main content
lifeless

lifeless

8 4.4
Too harsh for plants or animals to survive there
  • adjective
  • /ˈlaɪf.ləs/
translation icon : sin vida
  • The Earth will likely be lifeless in 4 billion years, long before the sun expands and swallows us.
  • barren and lifeless
  • cold and lifeless
  • empty and lifeless

This might seem as futile as looking for a live ember in lifeless Gray ashes.

Examples

  • The ocean seemed lifeless, devoid of any sea creatures, as the pollution had taken its toll on the ecosystem.

  • For much of the long span of its history, our planet lay barren and lifeless.

  • Sand and air are lifeless, because they contain no DNA.

  • Eventually, the planet will be a dry, dusty, lifeless ball.

    Fiction book (1998)
  • We made landfall on five lifeless planets.

    Fiction book (1997)
  • The next spring, there is a bare, lifeless patch where once a whole ecosystem thrived.

    Blog text (15)
  • The icecap was a perfect graveyard, utterly lifeless, and it encouraged thoughts of mortality.

    Fiction book (2000)
  • In Setswana, the national language of Botswana, Makgadikgadi means "vast, open, lifeless land."

    Academic text (2006)
  • If it weren't for this fragile cocoon, our planet would be as dry and lifeless as our nearest neighbors in the solar system.

  • It's deserted... dusty... lifeless.

Synonyms

dead
vslifeless
248 1.0

Still and quiet, without movement or life, like water

is more about absence of life support rather than merely stillness
uninhabited
vslifeless
20 4.0

A place with no people living there

concerns inability to support life rather than mere absence of residents
derelict
vslifeless
14 7.5

A place or building that is abandoned and in very bad condition from lack of use

describes inability to support life rather than neglect or disrepair
barren
vslifeless
11 5.3

Having no useful ideas or emotion

narrows this to not being able to sustain or support life
inanimate
vslifeless
11 5.3

Not alive and cannot move or feel

focuses instead on not being able to sustain living things
deathly
vslifeless
6 6.5

Very pale, still, or quiet like someone who is dead

is used for places or things that cannot support life
abandoned
vslifeless
2 2.8

Left empty and not used, often by people who lived there

focuses on inability to support life rather than simply being empty
stone dead
vslifeless
  • Informal
1 5.1

Completely without life or totally not working

is about lacking the capacity to support life rather than intensity alone
unanimated
vslifeless
1 7.6

Something that is not lively and seems dull and without energy

stresses inability to sustain life rather than low energy or mood
deathlike
vslifeless
1 8.6

Pale and motionless like someone who is dead

refers literally to lacking capacity to sustain living organisms
nonliving
vslifeless
3.9

Not alive and does not grow or breathe

refers specifically to inability to support or sustain living organisms
exanimate
vslifeless
  • Archaic
9.9

Without life or any sign of feeling

emphasizes inability to support life rather than just lack of spirit
desiccated
vslifeless
  • Formal
7.8

Having little energy or feeling and seeming lifeless

means inability to support life rather than just dry or dull looks

Antonyms

34 4.6

A place that people can live in, like a house or planet

Needed for a person to stay alive

How Alive

thriving
6 3.8
alive
1.0
habitable
34 4.6
lifeless
8 4.4
uninhabitable
18 6.1

Surface Forms

lifeless positive

Morphology

lifeless = life (transparent) = life + less

The reading 'without life' naturally extends to 'unable to support life' in contexts describing environments.

Etymology

Lifeless is made of life and less, where less means 'without'. That's why we call a planet or place lifeless when it cannot support living things — there is 'no life' there.