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From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.44 [gcide]:
Inertia \In*er"ti*a\, noun [L., idleness, fr. iners idle. See {Inert}.]
1. (Physics) That property of matter by which it tends when at rest to remain so, and when in motion to continue in motion, and in the same straight line or direction, unless acted on by some external force; -- sometimes called {vis inerti[ae]}. The inertia of a body is proportional to its mass. [1913 Webster +PJC]
2. Inertness; indisposition to motion, exertion, or action; lack of energy; sluggishness.
Men . . . have immense irresolution and inertia. --Carlyle.
3. (Med.) Lack of activity; sluggishness; -- said especially of the uterus, when, in labor, its contractions have nearly or wholly ceased.
{Center of inertia}. (Mech.) See under {Center}.
From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:
inertia
noun
1: a disposition to remain inactive or inert; "he had to overcome his inertia and get back to work" [syn: {inactiveness}, {inactivity}] [ant: {activeness}]
2: (physics) the tendency of a body to maintain is state of rest or uniform motion unless acted upon by an external force
From Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 [moby-thes]:
112 Moby Thesaurus words for "inertia": a wise passiveness, abeyance, apathy, catalepsy, catatonia, cautiousness, circumspection, contemplation, contemplative life, creeping, deadliness, deathliness, deliberateness, deliberation, dilatoriness, do-nothing policy, do-nothingism, do-nothingness, dormancy, drawl, dullness, entropy, ergophobia, faineancy, faineantise, firmness, foot-dragging, hibernation, hoboism, idleness, immobility, immobilization, immovability, immovableness, inaction, inactiveness, inactivity, indifference, indolence, inertness, inexertion, inextricability, inflexibility, irremovability, just being, laggardness, laissez-aller, laissez-faire, laissez-faireism, languor, lassitude, latency, laziness, leisureliness, lentitude, lentor, listlessness, lotus-eating, lull, meditation, mere existence, mere tropism, motionlessness, neutralism, neutrality, neutralness, noninvolvement, nonparticipation, nonresistance, nonviolence, nonviolent resistance, pacifism, paralysis, passive resistance, passive self-annihilation, passiveness, passivism, passivity, pokiness, policy, procrastination, quiescence, quietism, reluctance, remissness, rigidity, shiftlessness, slackness, sloth, slothfulness, slowness, sluggardy, sluggishness, solidity, spring fever, stagnancy, stagnation, standpattism, stasis, suspense, suspension, tentativeness, torpor, underactivity, unmovability, unyieldingness, vagrancy, vegetation, vis inertiae, vita contemplativa, waiting game, watching and waiting
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