Inactivate

Inactivate means to cause something to become inactive or unable to function. It can refer to processes that disable activity, signaling, replication, or metabolism, and the loss of function can be temporary or permanent, partial or complete.

The term comes from the prefix in- meaning not, combined with activate, from Latin activare, and it is used across science, medicine, and technology to describe rendering something nonfunctional or noninfectious.

In biology and medicine, inactivation typically refers to removing or suppressing biological activity. Pathogens such as viruses or bacteria can be inactivated by heat, chemical agents, or irradiation, eliminating their ability to cause infection while often preserving enough structure to be recognized by the immune system. This is the basis for inactivated vaccines, which use killed pathogens to provoke immunity; examples include the inactivated polio vaccine (IPV) and several hepatitis A vaccines. Inactivation can also describe the suppression of enzymes, toxins, or cellular processes, either temporarily or permanently.

In genetics and biochemistry, gene inactivation or functional silencing removes a gene’s activity, often via mutations or RNA interference, to study function or to control organisms. Enzyme inactivation refers to the loss of catalytic activity due to denaturation, inhibitors, or other conditions; some inactivations are reversible, others are irreversible and lead to permanent loss of function.

In industrial and environmental contexts, inactivation is used to refer to processes that render contaminants or hazards nonfunctional, such as pasteurization or sterilization to reduce microbial load, or strategies to deactivate unwanted biological agents. In software and information systems, inactivate can describe disabling a feature or deactivating a user account.