Is deactivate a word

Deactivate and “inactivate” are two separate words in the English language. They have certain meanings. They differ in terms of grammar and usage. They have some sort of idiomatic difference. Despite their ability to disrupt or eliminate normal functioning to its initial level, or to completely disrupt something you were doing normally, they differ in terms of how to use this word correctly and in the appropriate context.

Deactivate means rendering something inactive or no longer effective, whereas inactive means rendering something useless.

Hence, both of them are those words of the English language that have their individuality in terms of the rules of grammar and usage. I will give all the meanings and startling differences between these two terms and will address the necessary grammatical rules to improve your vocabulary.

Let’s get started!

What is the distinction between the terms “deactivate” and “inactivate”?

Both terms refer to rendering a person incapable of performing normal functions. They are semantically equivalent. However, there is an idiomatic distinction.

Inactivation is the suppression of action through a change in form or environment. Deactivating something means making it inoperable by disconnecting or disassembling it.

The distinction is subtle. In practice, inactivate is typically used in the biological sciences, whereas deactivate is commonly used in engineering.

An enzyme can be inactivated by adjusting the pH of the solution it is in or by changing its temperature. On, deactivates a radio by turning it off, removing the batteries, or striking it with a hammer.

The usage of both these words varies according to subject and context.

Inactivate vs. Deactivate- What’s the difference?

There is no semantic difference between the two, and their general meanings are the same. They are both antonyms of activating. They mean;

To cease or stop an activity 

There is a slight difference between the two in terms of pragmatics or we can say they have different contextual meanings.

Deactivate implies (or one can infer) a more permanent cessation of activity than inactivate, which implies that the activity may return relatively soon.

“Inactive” means idle or not working, so when you deactivate something, it stops doing what it normally does. For example, when we deactivate an account, it becomes inactive.

I think some of the confusion is already cleared.

What is meant by “deactivate”?

To deactivate something means turning it off. Something inactive is something that has already been turned off. The word “inactivate” does not exist. The correct wording is “deactivate. It means that you are no longer active.

Whether it’s a credit card that’s been canceled, a membership that’s been canceled, or something else. In all these cases we use the word “Deactivated”.

It means being rendered inactive. When referring to machinery or technology, it usually means that it has been turned off and is no longer performing its function. When in the inactive state, anything that can be described as being able to switch from an active state to an inactive state is said to be deactivated.

We use the word “deactivated” for technology or machinery that has stopped or is not long in working condition.

Is inactivated interchangeable with deactivated?

The verb “inactivate” exists, but it was only widely used from the 1960s to the early 1980s. The term “deactivate” is not used in the same way as “inactivate” is.

Inactivate” literally means “to render something (a thing) inactive, inoperative, or inoperable.” To put it another way, to make something not work.

Household bleach, for example, does not inactivate the virus, and coffee tends to inactivate medicinal remedies.

Compare this to “deactivate,” which means to make something inactive by destroying or disconnecting it—for example, the switch deactivates the alarm.
Inactivate means to stop it from working, whereas deactivate means to disconnect it and make it inactive.

So, by seeing all of these literal meanings, it seems better if we use the word “deactivate” rather than the word “inactivate” in a sentence.

Have a deeper look at the meaning of “inactivate” through this video.

Can we compare inactivated and deactivated?

The terms “inactivate” and “deactivate” are interchangeable. Deactivate is more commonly used when dealing with technical equipment, but they both mean the same thing.

Differences	Inactivate	Deactivate
As a verb	To make inactive	To deactivate, to prevent a reaction or two make something no longer effective
Alternative forms	Inactive	De-activate
Examples	My computer was inactivated; everything was erased.	I have deactivated my Instagram account.

Although they seem to signify the same thing, I prefer to use inactivate because of my medical background, where deactivate was never used as a transitive verb. But it was used in my practical life, to deactivate my credit card and to deactivate my social media account.

The pronunciation for inactivate is ; inaktvt/inakt
verb ; It means to make it dormant or non-functional.

Example : Household bleach does not render the virus inactive.”

The pronunciation for deactivate is : daktvt/Daktvt/Daktvt/Daktv
As a verb it means:  To Disconnect or destroy anything, usually technical equipment or a virus, to render it inert.

For example: “The alarm is deactivated via the switch.”

Disable, defuse, disarm, disconnect, inactivate, make inoperative, immobilise, stop, and turn off are synonyms for disable, defuse, disarm, disconnect, inactivate, make inoperative, immobilise, stop, and turn off.

Both words have antonym activity. While they are used separately in context, the subject and sentence need to be used.

What do you mean by “inactivated”?

In technology, the term “inactivate” is also used frequently. I believe it stems from the fact that “active” and “inactive” are two opposing states, which gives rise to the verbs “activating” and “inactivating.” turn inactive.

It has several meanings as a verb and as an adjective.

Verb: discharge from military service or removal from the active military service list

verb [transitive]

As an adjective:  To make inactive or inoperative 
Example: It is an inactivated polio vaccine

To summarize, Inactivated for cultures of bacteria and viruses in biochemical and biotechnological studies.

What does the term “deactivated account” mean?

A deactivated account is equivalent to a closed account. It’s the same as closing a bank or credit card account. The person who owns the account is usually the one who deactivates it. Some people decide to discontinue their use of social media and close their accounts on Facebook, Twitter, Google+, and so on.

Some claim it is addictive, and, well, too much of anything isn’t good. So they just deactivate their accounts. Everyone has a personal reason to deactivate their social media account. The same goes for their credit or debit cards.

So, deactivating an account means shutting it off, either for some time or for a longer period.

Have a look at this video to have a better understanding of the word “deactivated.”

Is deactivating synonymous with inactivating?

Inactivation is the suppression of action through a change in form or environment. While Deactivating something means making it inoperable by disconnecting or disassembling it.

The distinction is subtle. 

In practice, inactivate is commonly used in biological sciences, whereas deactivate is commonly used in engineering.

What exactly is inactivated? 

It has two meanings such as;

• To inactivate the complement of normal serum by destroying certain biological activities.
• To render (as an infectious agent) bacteria incapable of causing disease.

Other Words Related to Inactivate are turned off or turned on.

Is it inactivated or unactivated?

The distinction between inactive and unactivated as adjectives is that inactive is inactivated, whereas unactivated is not (yet) activated.

Although it is quite complex to memorize all the meanings, remembering the correct version is the easiest.

What are some examples of deactivated in a sentence?

The examples below show some of the usages of “deactivated” in a sentence, and some contextual meanings for this word.

• If you want to deactivate a computer, usually all you have to do is press the power button.
• My debit card has been deactivated due to a low balance.
• I deactivated my Instagram account so that I can focus on my exams in a better way.

These examples will help you better understand the meaning of this word.

Is deactivating the same as Disabling?

No, they are not the same. The difference between deactivate and disable as verbs is that deactivate is to make something inactive or no longer effective, whereas disable is to render someone unable to do so.

As an adjective, disabled means (obsolete)or lack of ability; inability.
 

In other words, deactivate is to render something inactive or ineffective in order to prevent a biochemical agent such as an enzyme. It means to discharge a person or piece of equipment from active military service.

While, disable refers to render incapable; to take away a capability. We can say that, it means to impair a person’s physical or mental abilities is to cause a serious, permanent injury.

For example, He was rendered disable after falling off the horse. It used to disable an electronic or mechanical device’s function.

Final Thoughts

In conclusion, the words “deactivated” and “inactivated” are two different words having the same meaning, meaning “not turned off” or “making something less effective.” They have separate meanings if we look at them as a noun and as a verb. They vary in terms of usage from subject to subject. Inactivate is used in terms of biological studies to inactivate a culture medium, be it a virus or a bacteria.

On the other hand, deactivation is used in technical and everyday terms to turn off or cease the effect of technology. For example, we use the word “deactivate” for our bank accounts, social media handles, and other daily usage services. But we never used it in terms of science and research.

Because they both mean the same thing, deactivate and inactivate can be used interchangeably. They have the same antonyms, such as active. There are many synonyms for these words, such as disabled, immobilize, stop, turn off, or disconnect. Thus, it completely depends on the context to opt for the word.

Overall, both these words are considered different in terms of grammar and usage. It depends on which one you choose to use. Most people use inactivate to support their sentences. While some people use deactivate for technical work.

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Last Updated:
12 Apr 2023
— Updated example sentences

The English language is extremely rich, full of peculiarities, and has an extremely broad vocabulary. Literally you can find a term to describe and differentiate every single thing you could possibly imagine. In this context, though, sometimes certain words that may appear to be defined similarly in terms of semantics actually mean very different things idiomatically within the context of pragmatics. That is the beauty of the English language, the value of linguistics as a field of study, and that is for sure the case of «inactivate» and «deactivate.»

Semantically, both inactivate and deactivate hold the same meaning: rendering something (or someone) inactive, inoperative, ineffective, or dysfunctional. The difference lies in how this inactivation takes place: whether by altering the environment in which the thing thrives or by taking it apart.

Identical Meanings

Both «inactivate» and «deactivate» are transitive verbs. Transitive verbs are defined as the ones that need to be accompanied by an object to be understandable and make sense when used. According to several dictionaries, both mean about the same: «to make inactive, inoperative or ineffective.»

That being said, we seem to be facing two identical words with identical meanings, right? Well, not exactly.

In terms of the words’ meanings, referred to as semantics, the branch of linguistics in charge of these matters, these words may indeed appear to be synonyms. Yet, in terms of the actual use of the words (the pragmatic sense), they’re applied to entirely different things in entirely different contexts.

Not So Obvious Differences

Oxford Languages sheds a little more light on the idiomatic differences between «inactivate» and «deactivate.» As seen before, both words mean to render inactive, inoperative, or ineffective. Both are also most commonly, yet not exclusively, used in the context of equipment, devices, explosives, or viruses, and in some circumstances, accounts or even people. Yet, in the specific case of «deactivate,» it makes the distinction that this inactivation, inoperativeness, or ineffectiveness is achieved by means of disconnection, dismantling or destruction.

The Origin Of It All

Both words work as antonyms of the word «activate,» which in turn derives from the term «active» meaning, in this particular sense that occupies us, to be working, or operative, or functional, or engaged. Active, in itself, derives from «activity» from the Latin term «activus» and «actus,» roughly meaning «doing» or «to drive, to move, to draw out or forth.»

So basically, we have two words that signify the cease of some sort of action or activity. But this cessation can come from different sources or be executed in different ways, which is what we really need to focus on to understand the differences.

It’s All About Context

As mentioned, both words represent on themselves the stop of an action or the functioning of a thing or being. In spite of this, they’re not exactly used in the same context in daily life.

The Science Of Inactivation

«To inactivate» works in a context as to alter the form of the environment of the thing (whether an object, a device, an intangible, etc.) we want to be inactivated is on, in order to render it non-operative, not functional, or not effective. In this sense, the term inactivate is applicable more to fields such as biology, medicine, chemistry, and the like, as the most frequent use of inactivation in this context is the inactivation of viruses or other biological forms or compounds (enzymes, for example). Merriam-Webster indicates that inactivation in this sense applies to destroying certain biological activities of a substance or causing an infectious agent the loss of its disease-causing effects.

We’ve heard a lot about inactivated viruses lately due to the different types of COVID-19 vaccines available right now. As explained by the World Health Organization (WHO), among the types of vaccine is the «inactivated vaccine,» defined as one made by taking the disease-carrier virus or one similar enough to it to render the same desired result, inactivating it by means of chemical compounds, elevated temperatures or radiation, so as to make the virus incapable of causing the actual disease, yet still recognizable to the body in order to start the process of producing the necessary antibodies. This is similar to the «live-attenuated» approach. Still, in this variant, although the effects on the body are comparable in terms of antibodies production, the original virus or bacterium isn’t fully inactivated before being introduced into the human body. Inactivated COVID-19 vaccines include (limiting only to those approved for human use): Shifa Pharmed (Iran), Sinopharm (Beijing, China), Sinopharm (Wuhan, China), Covaxin (India), Minhai Biotech Co (China), QazVac (Kazakhstan), Sinovac-Coronavac (China),

In a completely unrelated sense, inactivation also applies to discharging an official from the military or the act of breaking a specific military unit, either by transferring its members or by discharging them altogether.

The Mechanics Of Deactivation

On the other hand, deactivate is used more in the context of disconnecting, disassembling, or taking apart a device or a piece of equipment. Common uses range from radios or computers to bombs and explosive devices. Deactivation is also common in the digital environment as it applies to accounts, especially on social media.

To Inactivate Or To Deactivate, That Is The Question

Let’s explore some cases in which one or another are used in sentences:

• Not only inactivated COVID-19 vaccines use the inactivation mechanism of creating immunity.
• Some examples of inactivated viral vaccines throughout history are the Salk vaccine (polio), the Hep A vaccine, the rabies vaccine, the majority of influenza vaccines, and the vaccine against tick-borne encephalitis.
• Other inactivated vaccines but focusing on bacterial infections include the typhoid vaccine, the cholera vaccine, the plague vaccine, and the pertussis vaccine.
• Compound inactivation has other multiple health-related uses, like food quality and conservation during storage.
• In this sense, we talk about enzyme inactivation; a necessary process that takes place in vegetables and fruits is enzyme inactivation.
• Enzyme inactivation involves exposing these compounds to conditions utterly different from those you would commonly find within its environment (living cells).
• Deactivation, on the contrary, focuses more on mechanical processes.
• The most expert teams on deactivating devices are the anti-bomb squads, which act when called over for a bomb threat.
• The anti-bomb units focus on evaluating the threat, locating the explosive device, determining the type of device involved, and thus, using the correct method to deactivate it.
• Other things that can be deactivated are options, add-ons, extensions, and capabilities on operating systems, whether on computers or phones.
• Deactivate is also the option provided by most social media services to render accounts inoperable by their owners.
• The military also deactivates officials to be placed on discharge (whether honorable or dishonorable).

Bottom Line

Both words, «inactivate» and «deactivate» are excellent examples of how it is not only important to understand the meaning of words before making a comparison between them, but also it is necessary to learn the context in which each one is used, as to not make mistakes. This is called comparing the semantic aspect with the pragmatics, both elements of linguistics.

The term inactivate is by far the most common and mentioned during these pandemic days, as some of the inactivated vaccines are either the only main ones applied in certain countries or regions (like Sinovac throughout Latin America and several regions of China, Shifa Pharmed in Iran, and QazVac in Kazahstan, among others).

Yet we’ve grown up surrounded by action movies showing us how the special anti-bomb unit disarms explosive devices in order to defuse and deactivate them. So we can really consider both applicable in day-to-day life, functional in modern English language, and each well understood in their own field of application.

отключать, дезактивировать, демобилизовать, расформировывать

глагол

- расформировывать
- демобилизовать
- обезвреживать (мины)
- спец. дезактивировать
- тех. отключать; приводить в неработоспособное состояние
- вчт. отключать; отменять, выключать (режим); уничтожать (процесс)

Словосочетания

a fail-safe device in a nuclear weapon to deactivate it automatically in the event of accident — предохранительное устройство в ядерном оружии, установленное с целью его автоматической деактивации в случае аварии  
to deactivate / defuse a bomb — обезвреживать мину  
to deactivate / turn off an alarm — дать отбой тревоге, отключить сигнал тревоги  
to deactivate, disband a unit — расформировывать подразделение  
deactivate a depot — законсервировать склад  
deactivate a feature — отключить функцию  
deactivate a mine — удалять из мины элемент неизвлекаемости; обезвреживать мину  
deactivate a mode — выключить режим  
deactivate a unit — расформировывать часть  
deactivate depreciation area — деактивировать область оценки  
deactivate open item — деактивировать открытую позицию  

Примеры с переводом

Примеры, ожидающие перевода

Возможные однокоренные слова

Формы слова