The thing is that words are supposed to be useful. If a word can't tell the difference between photons, stars, and everything in between, then it's not very use

The thing is that words are supposed to be useful. If a word can't tell the difference between photons, stars, and everything in between, then it's not very useful anymore. Calling all of these things 'alive' would just defeat the meaning of the word - we can't resuscitate a rock, we can't talk to photons, feed an atom - all these things that we associate with being alive are just rendered inapplicable.