animacy
noun
animacy is spelled A-N-I-M-A-C-Y: 7 letters. It appears about once in every 40 million words in written English, the 194,306th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, animacy means “The state of being animate (alive or supernaturally seeming alive)” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of animacy is animacies.
How many letters and syllables are in animacy?
| Letters | 7: A-N-I-M-A-C-Y |
|---|---|
| In writing | about once in every 40 million words; the 194,306th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none measured in search |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How common is animacy?
Animacy appears about once in every 40 million words in written English, the 194,306th most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
Forms of animacy
- animacies plural
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does animacy mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
The state of being animate (alive or supernaturally seeming alive).
- 2
In some languages, the characteristic of a noun, dependent on its living or sentient nature, which affects grammatical features (it can modify verbs used with the noun, affect the noun's declension, etc.).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Animacy in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense quality of being animate:
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | animéité, animacité |
| German | Belebtheit |
| Portuguese | animacidade |
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.
Where does animacy come from?
From animate + -cy.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).