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# inoperative

«inoperative» in Mova's school dictionary: **not working or not in use: The lift is inoperative** — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples, with 3 sentences of Mova's corpora that use it.

### part of speech

adjective (inoperative)

### meaning for a pupil

1) (formal) Inoperative means not working or not in use: The lift is inoperative. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/I/inoperative/#m1)

2) (formal) Inoperative can mean a rule or law that no longer has any effect. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/I/inoperative/#m2)

### sense in the lessons

A formal and official word on signs and in reports: «This machine is inoperative» means it is broken or switched off. In safety, an inoperative smoke alarm is dangerous and must be fixed. Everyday speech says «broken», «out of order» or «not working».

### examples

- (formal) The lift is inoperative; please use the stairs. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/I/inoperative/#x1)
- The smoke alarm was inoperative because the battery was flat. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/I/inoperative/#x2)
- (formal) The ticket machine is currently inoperative. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/I/inoperative/#x3)
- Two of the five lights were inoperative. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/I/inoperative/#x4)
- The old rule became inoperative when the new one began. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/I/inoperative/#x5)
- Report any inoperative equipment to the teacher. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/I/inoperative/#x6)

### note

Formal; the prefix in- means «not». Do not confuse with «inoperable» (cannot be operated on by a doctor). In maths: if 2 of 5 machines are inoperative, 3 are working.

### In the corpora

- [Politics does the same with money and bad news: a statement that turned out false is suddenly called "inoperative".](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/25-spin-war-and-violence/2/)
- ["Inoperative" said of an earlier statement means it was false (US).](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/25-spin-war-and-violence/7/)
- [An "inoperative statement" is a US political phrase for a statement now admitted to be false.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/28-stealing-and-lying/23/)

### Trees and pragmatics

[Every meaning and example of «inoperative» parsed by Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/I/inoperative/), each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.