inaction

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

“Many of these individuals are effectively prisoners of bureaucratic incompetence, inaction, and indecision, held in place not by law, but by a system that has failed to move.”

From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 7, 2026

In a statement, Governor Babajide Olusola Sanwo-Olu warned that inaction on climate change could cost the wider state government around $40 billion by 2050, "with severe consequences for our people, infrastructure and economy".

From Barron's • Mar. 26, 2026

But overcoming that fear and engaging in collective action will build momentum, and a type of muscle memory, where the new rule becomes action and not inaction.

From Salon • Mar. 3, 2026

“Local law enforcement must not be complicit through silence or inaction when federal agents overstep legal and ethical boundaries,” Duarte said.

From Los Angeles Times • Feb. 10, 2026

“Sirs, while I would liefer commend the nobility of restraint, here must I endorse rather the vigor of lively opposition, lest, peradventure, we find that inaction is in itself the occasion of profligacy.”

From "The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation, Volume II: The Kingdom on the Waves" by M.T. Anderson