Inertia meaning

ĭ-nûr'shə
The definition of inertia is when an object remains still or moves in a constant direction at a constant speed.
noun
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The more inertia an object has, the less the object will change its motion when it meets another force.
noun
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Inertia will continue unless the object meets some external force.
noun
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The ground is the force, the motion, that causes the object to no longer have inertia and to instead stray from its speed and direction.

An example of inertia is a bowling ball sitting still on a shelf.

An example of inertia is a person walking in a straight line down the street.

noun
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The tendency of a body at rest to remain at rest or of a body in straight line motion to stay in motion in a straight line unless acted on by an outside force; the resistance of a body to changes in momentum.
noun
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Resistance or disinclination to motion, action, or change.

An entrenched bureaucracy's inertia.

noun
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(figuratively) In a person, unwillingness to take action.
noun
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The tendency of matter to remain at rest if at rest, or, if moving, to keep moving in the same direction, unless affected by some outside force.
noun
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The resistance of a body to changes in its momentum. Because of inertia, a body at rest remains at rest, and a body in motion continues moving in a straight line and at a constant speed, unless a force is applied to it. Mass can be considered a measure of a body's inertia.
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(physics, uncountable or countable) The property of a body that resists any change to its uniform motion; equivalent to its mass.
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(medicine) Lack of activity; sluggishness; said especially of the uterus, when, in labour, its contractions have nearly or wholly ceased.
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A tendency to remain in a fixed condition without change; disinclination to move or act.
noun
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Origin of inertia

  • Latin idleness from iners inert- inert inert
    From American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition
  • From Latin inertia (“lack of art or skill, inactivity, indolence”), from iners (“unskilled, inactive”), from in- (“without, not”) + ars (“skill, art”).
    From Wiktionary

Inertia Sentence Examples

  • The new A, B, C are called the principal moments of inertia at 0.

  • The directions of these axes are determined by the property (24), and therefore coincide with those of the principal axes of inertia at 0, as already defined in connection with the theory of plane quadratic moments.

  • They both protested against the political and ecclesiastical inertia of their native state, and adopted the doctrines of freedom and reason.

  • provided the inertia of the snrin~ itself be neglected.

  • Consequently the inertia to overcome in moving the cylinder r=b, solid or liquid, is its own inertia, increased by the inertia of liquid (a2+b2)/(a2,..b2) times the volume of the cylinder r=b; this total inertia is called the effective inertia of the cylinder r =b, at the instant the two cylinders are concentric.

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Words near inertia in the Dictionary