An example of indifferent is a person who has no opinion about politics.
- having or showing no partiality, bias, or preference; neutral
- having or showing no interest, concern, or feeling; uninterested, apathetic, or unmoved
- of no consequence or importance; immaterial
- not particularly good or bad, large or small, right or wrong, etc.; fair, average, etc.
- not really good; rather poor or bad
- neutral in quality, as a chemical, magnet, etc.; inactive: chiefly in scientific use
- capable of developing in various ways, as the cells of an embryo that are not yet specialized; undifferentiated
Origin of indifferentOld French ; from Classical Latin indifferens: see in- and amp; different
- a. Having no particular interest or concern; apathetic: a person who is indifferent to the sufferings of others.b. Having no marked feeling for or against: She remained indifferent toward their proposal.
- Not mattering one way or the other; unimportant; immaterial: It's indifferent which outfit you choose.
- Characterized by a lack of partiality; unbiased: an indifferent judge.
- a. Being neither too much nor too little; moderate: “Specialist rectifiers &ellipsis; raised brandies of indifferent strength to the desired strength by further distillations” (L.M. Cullen).b. Being neither good nor bad; mediocre: an indifferent performance. See Synonyms at average.
- Not active or involved; neutral: an indifferent chemical in a reaction.
- Biology Undifferentiated, as cells or tissue.
Origin of indifferentMiddle English, from Old French, from Latin indiffer&emacron;ns, indifferent- : in-, not; see in–1 + differ&emacron;ns, different; see different.
(comparative more indifferent, superlative most indifferent)
- Not caring or concerned; uninterested, apathetic.
- He was indifferent to the proposal, since it didn't affect him, either way.
- Mediocre, usually used negatively in modern usage.
- The long distance and the indifferent roads made the journey impossible.
- The performance of Blue Jays has been 'indifferent this season.
- Having no preference or bias, being impartial.
- I am indifferent between the two plans.
- Not making a difference; without significance or importance.
- 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.
- (mechanics) Being in the state of neutral equilibrium.
- Now obsolete, but very common c. 1600-1730.
From Old French indifferent, from Latin indifferens