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Intimate vs Inanimate - What's the difference?

intimate | inanimate |

As adjectives the difference between intimate and inanimate

is that intimate is closely acquainted; familiar while inanimate is lacking the quality or ability of motion; as an inanimate object .

As nouns the difference between intimate and inanimate

is that intimate is a very close friend while inanimate is something that is not alive.

As verbs the difference between intimate and inanimate

is that intimate is to suggest or disclose discreetly while inanimate is (obsolete) to animate .

intimate

English

Adjective

(en adjective)
  • Closely acquainted; familiar.
    • an intimate friend
    He and his sister deeply valued their intimate relationship as they didn't have much else to live for.
  • Of or involved in a sexual relationship.
    • She enjoyed some intimate time alone with her husband.
  • Personal; private.
    • an intimate setting

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • A very close friend.
    • Only a couple of intimates had ever read his writing.
  • (in plural intimates ) Women's underwear, sleepwear, or lingerie, especially offered for sale in a store.
    • You'll find bras and panties in the women's intimates section upstairs.

    Synonyms

    * (close friend) bosom buddy, bosom friend, cater-cousin

    Verb

    (intimat)
  • To suggest or disclose discreetly.
  • * '>citation
    •     The Kaiser beamed. Von Bulow had praised him. Von Bulow had exalted him and humbled himself. The Kaiser could forgive anything after that. "Haven't I always told you," he exclaimed with enthusiasm, "that we complete one another famously? We should stick together, and we will!"
        [...]
        Von Bulow saved himself in time—but, canny diplomat that he was, he nevertheless had made one error: he should have begun by talking about his own shortcomings and Wilhelm's superiority—not by intimating that the Kaiser was a half-wit in need of a guardian.
    He intimated that we should leave before the argument escalated.

    Related terms

    * intimacy * intimation

    External links

    * * English heteronyms English intransitive verbs ----

    inanimate

    English

    Adjective

    (en adjective)
  • Lacking the quality or ability of motion; as an inanimate object .
  • Not being, and never having been alive.
  • * {{quote-book
    • , year=1818 , author=Mary Shelley , title=Frankenstein , chapter=5 citation , passage=I had worked hard for nearly two years, for the sole purpose of infusing life into an inanimate body.}}
  • (grammar) Not animate.

    • Antonyms

    * (grammar) animate

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • Something that is not alive.

    • Verb

    (inanimat)
  • (obsolete) To animate.
    • (John Donne)
    ----