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Definition of inertia noun from the Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary

inertia

noun
 
/ɪˈnɜːʃə/
 
/ɪˈnɜːrʃə/
[uncountable]
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  1. (usually disapproving) lack of energy; lack of desire or ability to move or change
    • I can't seem to throw off this feeling of inertia.
    • the forces of institutional inertia in the school system
    Extra Examples
    • Projects were frequently abandoned through sheer inertia.
    • She lapsed into inertia and lay there as if asleep.
    • The forces for change in the government are not sufficient to overcome bureaucratic inertia.
    Oxford Collocations Dictionaryadjective
    • sheer
    • bureaucratic
    • political
    verb + inertia
    • overcome
    preposition
    • out of inertia
    • through inertia
    phrases
    • a state of inertia
    See full entry
  2. (physics) a property (= characteristic) of matter (= a substance) by which it stays still or, if moving, continues moving in a straight line unless it is acted on by a force outside itselfTopics Physics and chemistryc2
  3. Word Originearly 18th cent. (in sense (2)): from Latin, from iners, inert- ‘unskilled, inactive’, from in- (expressing negation) + ars, art- ‘skill, art’.
See inertia in the Oxford Advanced American DictionarySee inertia in the Oxford Learner's Dictionary of Academic English

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