ENGLISH DICTIONARY

Animacy

Definition, Meaning & Examples

Part of speech noun

Quick meaning: Animacy is a noun meaning (biology) The state of being alive.

Meaning

(biology) The state of being alive.

More Meanings

  1. (linguistics) In some languages, the characteristic of a noun, dependent on its living or sentient nature, which affects grammatical features (it can modify verbs used with the noun, affect the noun's declension, etc.).

Example Sentences

These may differ radically in their linguistic animacy, as briefly discussed above, without this having any consequences for their biological animacy.

Word Forms

Antonyms for animacy

Common opposites include inanimacy.

Related Words

Related dictionary entries include inanimacy, animateness, animality, animalness, animatedness, animation.

Related Dictionary Tools

Sources & Attribution

FreeDictionaryAPI.com / Wiktionary · Original source · CC BY-SA 4.0

Dictionary data is provided by FreeDictionaryAPI.com and sourced from Wiktionary under its stated license.