Etymology

From Old FrenchCategory:English terms derived from Old French#INDIFFERENT indifferentCategory:English undefined derivations#INDIFFERENT, from LatinCategory:English terms derived from Latin#INDIFFERENT indifferensCategory:English undefined derivations#INDIFFERENT. By surface analysis, in- +‎ differentCategory:English terms prefixed with in-#DIFFERENT.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ɪnˈdɪf.ɹənt/, /ɪnˈdɪf.ə.ɹənt/Category:English 3-syllable words#INDIFFERENTCategory:English 4-syllable words#INDIFFERENTCategory:English terms with IPA pronunciation#INDIFFERENT

• Audio (US):

  (file)

  Category:English terms with audio pronunciation#INDIFFERENT
• Hyphenation: in‧dif‧fer‧ent

Adjective

indifferent (comparative more indifferent, superlative most indifferent)Category:English lemmas#INDIFFERENTCategory:English adjectives#INDIFFERENTCategory:English entries with incorrect language header#INDIFFERENTCategory:Pages with entries#INDIFFERENTCategory:Pages with 4 entries#INDIFFERENT

2. Ambivalent; unconcerned; uninterested, apathetic.

   Synonyms: insouciant, nonchalant; see also Thesaurus:apathetic

   He was indifferent to the proposal, since it didn’t affect him, either way.

   Category:English terms with usage examples#INDIFFERENT

   • 1815 December (indicated as 1816), [Jane Austen], chapter XVI, in Emma: […], volume II, London: […] [Charles Roworth and James Moyes] for John Murray, →OCLC:

     “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.”

     Category:English terms with quotations#INDIFFERENT

   • 1933 January 9, George Orwell [pseudonym; Eric Arthur Blair], chapter III, in Down and Out in Paris and London, London: Victor Gollancz […], →OCLC:

     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.

     Category:English terms with quotations#INDIFFERENT

4. Indicating or reflecting a lack of concern or care.

   Synonyms: laid-back, pococurante; see also Thesaurus:carefree

   She responded with an indifferent shrug.

   Category:English terms with usage examples#INDIFFERENT

   • 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:

     Donald appeared not to see her at all, and answered her wise little remarks with curtly indifferent monosyllables […]

     Category:English terms with quotations#INDIFFERENT

   • 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:

     Then she shrugged, the mildest, most indifferent gesture he had ever seen, and smiled.

     Category:English terms with quotations#INDIFFERENT

   • 1990, J. M. Coetzee, Age of Iron, London: Secker & Warburg, page 33:

     ‘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.

     Category:English terms with quotations#INDIFFERENT

   • 2024 November 14, Lauren del Valle, “After suicide of nonbinary teen, DOE finds multiple Title IX violations at Oklahoma school district”, in CNN‎:

     “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.

     Category:English terms with quotations#INDIFFERENT

6. Mediocre (usually used negatively in modern usage).

   Synonyms: lackluster, ordinary; see also Thesaurus:mediocre

   The long distance and the indifferent roads made the journey impossible.

   Category:English terms with usage examples#INDIFFERENT

   The Blue Jays' performance has been indifferent this season.

   Category:English terms with usage examples#INDIFFERENT

   • 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:

     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.

     Category:English terms with quotations#INDIFFERENT

   • 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:

     [T]he state-rooms are unaired, and in indifferent order, since of late years.

     Category:English terms with quotations#INDIFFERENT

   • 1965, Muriel Spark, The Mandelbaum Gate‎, Part 2, page 252:

     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.

     Category:English terms with quotations#INDIFFERENT

8. Having no preference.

   I am indifferent between the two plans.

   Category:English terms with usage examples#INDIFFERENT

   • 1712 (date written), [Joseph] Addison, Cato, a Tragedy. […], London: […] J[acob] Tonson, […], published 1713, →OCLC, Act V, scene i, page 57:

     Let Guilt or Fear / Disturb Man’s Rest: Cato knows neither of ’em, / Indiff’rent in his Choice to sleep or die.

     Category:English terms with quotations#INDIFFERENT

   • 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:

     The scientific worker aims at knowledge and is quite indifferent whether people like or dislike the knowledge he produces.

     Category:English terms with quotations#INDIFFERENT

10. (datedCategory:English dated terms#INDIFFERENT) Unbiased, impartial, judging fairly.

    Synonyms: objective, unbiased; see also Thesaurus:impartial

    • 1955, Bernard Bailyn, The New England Merchants In The Seventeenth Century, Harvard University Press, page 48:

      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 […]"

      Category:English terms with quotations#INDIFFERENT

12. Not making a difference; without significance or importance.

    Synonyms: negligible, unimportant; see also Thesaurus:insignificant

    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.

    Category:English terms with usage examples#INDIFFERENT

    • 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]:

      […] But I am arm’d, / And dangers are to me indifferent.

      Category:English terms with quotations#INDIFFERENT

    • 1651, Jer[emy] Taylor, “Of Contentedness”, in The Rule and Exercises of Holy Living. […], 2nd edition, London: […] Francis Ashe […], →OCLC, section 6, page 146:

      [E]very thing in the world is indifferent but sin.

      Category:English terms with quotations#INDIFFERENT

    • 1850, Nathaniel Hawthorne, The Scarlet Letter, a Romance, Boston, Mass.: Ticknor, Reed, and Fields, →OCLC, page 162:

      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; […]

      Category:English terms with quotations#INDIFFERENT

    • 1956, Mary Renault, “Chapter 28”, in The Last of the Wine‎, New York: Modern Library, page 374:

      We talked of indifferent things, and watched the juggler who was tossing torches in the Stadium, for twilight was falling.

      Category:English terms with quotations#INDIFFERENT

14. (mechanicsCategory:en:Mechanics#INDIFFERENT) Being in the state of neutral equilibrium.
16. (obsoleteCategory:English terms with obsolete senses#INDIFFERENT) Not different; matching.

    Synonyms: identical, undifferentiated; see also Thesaurus:identical

    • 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]:

      […] let their heads be sleekly comb’d, their blue coats brush’d and their garters of an indifferent knit

      Category:English terms with quotations#INDIFFERENT

Noun

indifferent (plural indifferents)Category:English lemmas#INDIFFERENTCategory:English nouns#INDIFFERENTCategory:English countable nouns#INDIFFERENTCategory:English entries with incorrect language header#INDIFFERENTCategory:Pages with entries#INDIFFERENTCategory:Pages with 4 entries#INDIFFERENT

1. A person who is indifferent or apathetic.

Adverb

indifferentCategory:English lemmas#INDIFFERENTCategory:English adverbs#INDIFFERENTCategory:English entries with incorrect language header#INDIFFERENTCategory:Pages with entries#INDIFFERENTCategory:Pages with 4 entries#INDIFFERENT

1. (obsoleteCategory:English terms with obsolete senses#INDIFFERENT) To some extent, in some degree (intermediate between very and not at all); moderately, tolerably, fairly.

   Synonyms: see Thesaurus:moderately

   The face of the Moon appearing to me to be full of indifferent high mountains.Category:English terms with usage examples#INDIFFERENT

   • c. 1599–1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, The Tragicall Historie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmarke: […] (Second Quarto), London: […] I[ames] R[oberts] for N[icholas] L[ing] […], published 1604, →OCLC, [Act III, scene i], signature G3, verso:

     Get thee [to] a Nunry, why wouldst thou be a breeder of ſinners, I am my ſelfe indifferent honest, but yet I could accuse mee of ſuch things, that it were better my Mother had not bourne mee […]

     Category:English terms with quotations#INDIFFERENT

2. (obsoleteCategory:English terms with obsolete senses#INDIFFERENT) Without distinction or preference for some over others.
   • 1593, anonymous author, The Life and Death of Iacke Straw […], →OCLC, Act III:

     Newton. My Maſters, you that be the chiefeſt of the rout,
     The King intreats you kindly here by me,
     To come and ſpeake with him a word or two.
     Iacke Straw. Sirra, if the King would any thinge with vs,
     Tell him the way is indifferent to meete vs.
     Newton. You are too many to be talkt with all, […]

     Category:English terms with quotations#INDIFFERENT

Etymology

From LatinCategory:Danish terms derived from Latin#INDIFFERENT indifferens.

Adjective

indifferent (plural and definite singular attributive indifferente)Category:Danish lemmas#INDIFFERENTCategory:Danish adjectives#INDIFFERENTCategory:Danish entries with incorrect language header#INDIFFERENTCategory:Pages with entries#INDIFFERENTCategory:Pages with 4 entries#INDIFFERENT

1. indifferent, uninterested
2. (chemistryCategory:da:Chemistry#INDIFFERENT, rareCategory:Danish terms with rare senses#INDIFFERENT) with poor ability to react chemically

References

• “indifferent” in Den Danske Ordbog

Etymology

17th century, from LatinCategory:German terms derived from Latin#INDIFFERENT indifferens, mostly through FrenchCategory:German terms derived from French#INDIFFERENT indifférent.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈɪndɪfəˌʁɛnt/Category:German 4-syllable words#INDIFFERENTCategory:German terms with IPA pronunciation#INDIFFERENT

• Audio (Germany (Berlin)):

  (file)

  Category:German terms with audio pronunciation#INDIFFERENT

• Audio (Germany (Berlin)):

  (file)

  Category:German terms with audio pronunciation#INDIFFERENT

Adjective

indifferent (strong nominative masculine singular indifferenter, comparative indifferenter, superlative am indifferentesten)Category:German lemmas#INDIFFERENTCategory:German adjectives#INDIFFERENTCategory:German entries with incorrect language header#INDIFFERENTCategory:Pages with entries#INDIFFERENTCategory:Pages with 4 entries#INDIFFERENT (learned, higher registerCategory:German higher register terms#INDIFFERENT)

1. (of a person) indifferent, unconcerned, uninterested

   Synonyms: gleichgültig, desinteressiert, teilnahmslos

   Er war gegenüber unsern Vorschlägen völlig indifferent.

   He was entirely indifferent about our proposals.

   Category:German terms with usage examples#INDIFFERENT

2. (of a thing) neutral, indifferent, having no (pronounced) quality or value

   Synonym: neutral

   Das Heiraten gilt im Islam als erwünscht, im Katholizismus hingegen als moralisch indifferent.

   Marrying is considered recommended in Islam, but morally indifferent in Catholicism.

   Category:German terms with usage examples#INDIFFERENT

   Die Kennwerte sind hinsichtlich der Qualität indifferent und messen nur die Produktionsmenge sowie -kosten.

   The parameters are indifferent to quality and measure only the output and cost of production.

   Category:German terms with usage examples#INDIFFERENT

Adjective

indifferent m (feminine singular indifferente, masculine plural indifferents, feminine plural indifferentes)Category:Middle French lemmas#INDIFFERENTCategory:Middle French adjectives#INDIFFERENTCategory:Middle French entries with incorrect language header#INDIFFERENTCategory:Pages with entries#INDIFFERENTCategory:Pages with 4 entries#INDIFFERENT

1. indifferent; apathetic