【Dead】 , 【defunct】 , 【deceased】 , 【departed】 , 【late】 , 【lifeless】 ,  【inanimate】 all mean devoid of life.

【Dead】 applies strictly to anyone or to anything that has been deprived of life and has therefore ceased to grow or to function.

【Dead】 is also applicable to things which have not had life (in its literal sense) but have existed for a time and have been used or accepted or have proved effective or influential; thus, a 【dead】 language is no longer in spoken use by any people; a 【dead】 belief no longer has any acceptance; a 【dead】 journal no longer is printed and circulated; a 【dead】 issue or question no longer arouses interest or debate.

Figuratively the term implies lack or loss of sensation, consciousness, feeling, activity, energy, or any of the qualities associated with life.

【Defunct】 differs little in its literal sense from 【dead】 , except that it is somewhat bookish. The term is more often applied to a thing that by failure or dissolution has ceased to function or to operate.

【Deceased】 applies only to a person and especially to one who has died comparatively recently or who, though  【dead】 , is at the moment under consideration especially in some legal context.

【Departed】 is distinctly euphemistic (especially in religious use).  【Late】 is used in place of 【deceased】 or 【departed】 especially when stressing a relationship to a surviving person or an existent institutionc.

【Lifeless】 , unlike the preceding words, does not necessarily imply deprivation of life, for it is applicable not only to something literally 【dead】  but also to something which never had life or is incapable of life.

In comparison with 【dead】 , however, 【lifeless】 stresses the absence (sometimes, when loss of consciousness is implied, the apparent absence) of the phenomena characteristic of being alive; thus, one speaks of a 【dead】  man, but a 【lifeless】 body (that is, a body that shows no signs of life).

In its extended use  【lifeless】 is especially applicable to things (far less often to persons) that have not or never have had vitality, power, or spirit.

【Inanimate】 is more consistently used than  【lifeless】 in describing something which never had life; it is the preferred term when a contrast between that which is devoid of life and that which possesses life is expressed or implied.

But 【inanimate】 is also applicable in extended use to that which is spiritless, inactive, or not lively, and therefore dull.