Definitions

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • adjective chemistry Not reactive; relatively inert.
  • adjective psychology That does not respond to a stimulation.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • adjective not tending to react to stimulation
  • adjective (chemistry) not reacting chemically

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

un- +‎ reactive

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Examples

  • Ramsay from London received the 1904 Nobel Prize for Chemistry for his discovery of a number of noble gases, a new group of chemically unreactive elements.

    The Nobel Prize in Chemistry: The Development of Modern Chemistry 2010

  • This is at first glance surprising, because of the ease with which one would expect helium with its tiny, light, unreactive atoms to escape from the spaces within the crystal structure.

    You said it | RELIGION Blog | dallasnews.com 2009

  • This neglects the very lightest hydrocarbons, methane, ethane, and propane, because they are anomalously unreactive, but that also means that you can ignore them, mostly.

    Taking Your Lumps James Killus 2008

  • This neglects the very lightest hydrocarbons, methane, ethane, and propane, because they are anomalously unreactive, but that also means that you can ignore them, mostly.

    Archive 2008-02-01 James Killus 2008

  • In elemental form it is a dark, amorphous, unreactive solid.

    Boron 2008

  • Short aside: The original "IBM" was spelled out in xenon atoms, which are very unreactive, so they behaved themselves.

    Archive 2007-02-01 James Killus 2007

  • At this audition, the actors go in one after another, bang out auditions to a half-dozen network execs sitting five feet away from them, totally unreactive.

    Archive 2007-10-07 Rogers 2007

  • Short aside: The original "IBM" was spelled out in xenon atoms, which are very unreactive, so they behaved themselves.

    Running Out of Room at the Bottom James Killus 2007

  • At this audition, the actors go in one after another, bang out auditions to a half-dozen network execs sitting five feet away from them, totally unreactive.

    Post-Production: Day 14 through ... errr, 30-something Rogers 2007

  • And these fossils are coming out of the same rock layer, in the same area, so it's not that helpful for every person to note "found X in grey conglomerate grains rounded to sub-rounded, grains less than 1cm, unreactive with HCl or vinegar, near top of hill, 3m from pine tree, at these GPS coordinates" for every bone they find.

    Archive 2007-06-01 Sarah Werning 2007

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