indifferent
Language: English
Part of speech: adj
Pronunciation: ipa: /ɪnˈdɪf.ɹənt/
ipa: /ɪnˈdɪf.ə.ɹənt/
Forms: form: more indifferent
form: most indifferent
Etymology: From Old French indifferent, from Latin indifferens. By surface analysis, in- + different.
Senses: examples: text: He was indifferent to the proposal, since it didn’t affect him, either way.
text: “I must not hope to be ever situated as you are, in the midst of every dearest connexion, and therefore I cannot expect that simply growing older should make me indifferent about letters.” / “Indifferent! Oh! no—I never conceived you could become indifferent. Letters are no matter of indifference; they are generally a very positive curse.”
ref: 1815 December (indicated as 1816), [Jane Austen], chapter XVI, in Emma: […], volume II, London: […] [Charles Roworth and James Moyes] for John Murray, →OCLC:
text: When you have a hundred francs in the world you are liable to the most craven panics. When you have only three francs you are quite indifferent; for three francs will feed you till tomorrow, and you cannot think further than that. You are bored, but you are not afraid.
ref: 1933 January 9, George Orwell [pseudonym; Eric Arthur Blair], chapter III, in Down and Out in Paris and London, London: Victor Gollancz […], →OCLC:
synonyms: word: insouciant
word: nonchalant
word: adiaphroistic
word: apathetic
word: apathistical
word: blasé
word: deaf
word: cool
word: shiftless
word: dispassionate
word: dull
word: enervated
word: gallionic
word: halfhearted
word: heartless
word: impassive
word: ineffervescible
word: insouciant
word: indifferent
word: insensible
word: jaded
word: languid
word: languorous
word: Laodicean
word: lethargic
word: listless
word: lackadaisical
word: lotophagous
word: lukewarm
word: mopey
word: nonchalant
word: nonplussed
word: phlegmatic
word: pococurante
word: spiritless
word: supine
word: tepid
word: torpid
word: torpedinous
word: unaroused
word: uncaring
word: unconcerned
word: unenthusiastic
word: unimpressible
word: uninterested
word: unlively
word: unmoved
word: untouched
word: unzealous
word: world-weary
glosses: Ambivalent; unconcerned; uninterested, apathetic.
examples: text: She responded with an indifferent shrug.
text: Donald appeared not to see her at all, and answered her wise little remarks with curtly indifferent monosyllables […]
ref: 1886 May, Thomas Hardy, chapter XXV, in The Mayor of Casterbridge: The Life and Death of a Man of Character. […], volume II, London: Smith, Elder & Co., […], →OCLC:
text: Then she shrugged, the mildest, most indifferent gesture he had ever seen, and smiled.
ref: 1953, James Baldwin, “Gabriel’s Prayer”, in Go Tell It on the Mountain (A Laurel Book), New York, N.Y.: Dell Publishing Co., published December 1985, →ISBN, part 2 (The Prayers of the Saints), pages 122–123:
text: ‘Wonderful, Florence,’ I said, producing the ritual phrases: ‘I don’t know what I would do without you.’ But of course I do know. I would sink into the indifferent squalor of old age.
ref: 1990, J. M. Coetzee, Age of Iron, London: Secker & Warburg, page 33:
text: “As a result, OCR found that the district’s pattern of inconsistent responses to reports it received of sexual harassment – infrequently responding under Title IX or not responding at all – rose to the level that the district’s response to some families’ sexual harassment reports was deliberately indifferent to students’ civil rights,” a news release from DOE reads.
ref: 2024 November 14, Lauren del Valle, “After suicide of nonbinary teen, DOE finds multiple Title IX violations at Oklahoma school district”, in CNN:
synonyms: word: laid-back
word: pococurante
word: airy
word: at ease
word: at peace
word: carefree
word: careless
word: casual
word: chill
word: cool
word: devil-may-care
word: easy-breezy
word: easygoing
word: happy-go-lucky
word: indifferent
word: insouciant
word: laid-back
word: leisurely
word: lighthearted
word: loose
word: mellow
word: nonchalant
word: pococurante
word: relaxed
word: serene
word: solute
word: tranquil
word: unanxious
word: unbothered
word: unconcerned
word: undisturbed
word: unruffled
word: untroubled
word: unworried
word: wanton
glosses: Indicating or reflecting a lack of concern or care.
examples: text: The long distance and the indifferent roads made the journey impossible.
text: The Blue Jays' performance has been indifferent this season.
text: When Mrs. Honour had made her Report from the Landlord, Sophia, with much Difficulty, procured some indifferent Horses, which brought her to the Inn, where Jones had been confined rather by the Misfortune of meeting with a Surgeon, than by having met with a broken Head.
ref: 1749, Henry Fielding, chapter 9, in The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling, volume (please specify |volume=I to VI), London: A[ndrew] Millar, […], →OCLC, book X, page 275:
text: [T]he state-rooms are unaired, and in indifferent order, since of late years.
ref: 1826, [Walter Scott], chapter III, in Woodstock; Or, The Cavalier. […], volume I, Edinburgh: […] [James Ballantyne and Co.] for Archibald Constable and Co.; London: Longman, Rees, Orme, Brown, and Green, →OCLC, page 84:
text: Suddenly Barbara remembered the party where she had first met Ruth Gardnor with her husband. The night of the dinner party. And the cello: it had been an indifferent performance.
ref: 1965, Muriel Spark, The Mandelbaum Gate, Part 2, page 252:
synonyms: word: lackluster
word: ordinary
word: average
word: comme ci comme ça
word: indifferent
word: lackluster
word: meh
word: mediocre
word: mid
word: middling
word: no great shakes
word: nothing to write home about
word: not worth writing home about
word: okayish
word: ordinary
word: pedestrian
word: unexceptional
word: uninspiring
word: so-so
glosses: Mediocre (usually used negatively in modern usage).
examples: text: I am indifferent between the two plans.
text: Let Guilt or Fear / Disturb Man’s Rest: Cato knows neither of ’em, / Indiff’rent in his Choice to sleep or die.
ref: 1712 (date written), [Joseph] Addison, Cato, a Tragedy. […], London: […] J[acob] Tonson, […], published 1713, →OCLC, Act V, scene i, page 57:
text: The scientific worker aims at knowledge and is quite indifferent whether people like or dislike the knowledge he produces.
ref: 1933 September, H[erbert] G[eorge] Wells, “Intellectual Antagonism to the Modern State”, in The Shape of Things to Come, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company, →OCLC, 3rd book (The World Renascence: The Birth of the Modern State), page 302:
glosses: Having no preference.
examples: text: On October 7, 1640, the Massachusetts General Court attempted to solve the problem by a law stating that property seized for debts was to be assessed "at such prizes [prices] as the same shalbee valewed [shall be valued] at by 3 understanding and indifferent men, to bee chosen, the one by the creditor, another by the debtor, and the third by the marshall […]"
ref: 1955, Bernard Bailyn, The New England Merchants In The Seventeenth Century, Harvard University Press, page 48:
synonyms: word: objective
word: unbiased
word: candid
word: cold
word: clinical
word: detached
word: egal
word: equal
word: equitable
word: evenhanded
word: fairhanded
word: fair-minded
word: disinterested
word: dispassionate
word: impartial
word: imprejudicate
word: indifferent
word: indistinguishing
word: neuter
word: neutral
word: nonaligned
word: nonpartial
word: nonpartisan
word: nonpersonal
word: objective
word: unbiased
word: unbigoted
word: uninterested
word: unpartial
word: unpartisan
word: unprejudiced
word: unprepossessed
glosses: Unbiased, impartial, judging fairly.
examples: text: Even if one appliance consumes an indifferent amount of energy when left on stand-by overnight, together they can represent 10% of the electricity demand of a household.
text: […] But I am arm’d, / And dangers are to me indifferent.
ref: 1599 (first performance), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Iulius Cæsar”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene iii]:
text: [E]very thing in the world is indifferent but sin.
ref: 1651, Jer[emy] Taylor, “Of Contentedness”, in The Rule and Exercises of Holy Living. […], 2nd edition, London: […] Francis Ashe […], →OCLC, section 6, page 146:
text: His gestures, his gait, his grizzled beard, his slightest and most indifferent acts, the very fashion of his garments, were odious in the clergyman’s sight; […]
ref: 1850, Nathaniel Hawthorne, The Scarlet Letter, a Romance, Boston, Mass.: Ticknor, Reed, and Fields, →OCLC, page 162:
text: We talked of indifferent things, and watched the juggler who was tossing torches in the Stadium, for twilight was falling.
ref: 1956, Mary Renault, “Chapter 28”, in The Last of the Wine, New York: Modern Library, page 374:
synonyms: word: negligible
word: unimportant
word: base
word: contemptible
word: foolish
word: for the birds
word: futile
word: frivolous
word: idle
word: ignorable
word: immaterial
word: inconsequential
word: inconsiderable
word: indifferent
word: insignificant
word: like a fart in a windstorm
word: meager
word: mean
word: minor
word: negligible
word: nothingburger
word: nondescript
word: paltry
word: petty
word: picayune
word: picayunish
word: piddling
word: piddly
word: pissant
word: pitiful
word: pointless
word: silly
word: simple
word: slight
word: tin-pot
word: trifling
word: trivial
word: two-bit
word: unimportant
word: unweighty
word: vain
word: worthless
word: wretched
glosses: Not making a difference; without significance or importance.
topics: engineering
mechanical-engineering
mechanics
natural-sciences
physical-sciences
glosses: Being in the state of neutral equilibrium.
examples: text: […] let their heads be sleekly comb’d, their blue coats brush’d and their garters of an indifferent knit
ref: c. 1590–1592 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Taming of the Shrew”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene i]:
synonyms: word: identical
word: undifferentiated
word: identical
word: indifferent
word: nondifferent
word: one and the same
word: self
word: selfsame
word: undifferent
word: undifferentiated
glosses: Not different, matching.
Derived terms: indifferentist
indifferentness
unindifferent
Related terms: word: indifference
word: indifferency
word: indifferentism
word: indifferently