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inertia

iner·tia

UK/ɪnˈɜː.ʃə/ US/ɪˈnɜː.ʃə/ uncommon

noun

1.

a disposition to remain inactive or inert

  • “he had to overcome his inertia and get back to work”
Synonyms
Antonyms
2.

(physics) the tendency of a body to maintain is state of rest or uniform motion unless acted upon by an external force

Origin

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

Phrases

  • bureaucratic inertia
  • center of inertia
  • centre of inertia
  • inertia selling
  • inertia time
  • inertia welding
  • moment of inertia
  • uterine inertia

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WordNet 2.1 (Princeton University). Wiktionary (CC BY-SA). CMU Pronouncing Dictionary. WordNet 2.1 Copyright Princeton University. All rights reserved. Wiktionary content is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike Licence.