Indifference

How to spell indifference

12 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce indifference

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does indifference mean?

1. nounA lack of interest, concern, or sympathy toward something or someone.

Indifference in a sentence

• The manager met every complaint with cold indifference.

• Public indifference to the new policy worried the council.

Where does indifference come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word descends from the Latin indifferentia, meaning a state of making no distinction, which was built from indifferens, literally 'not differing'. The core lies in the verb differre, 'to carry apart' or 'to differ', formed from the prefix dis- ('apart') and ferre ('to carry or bear'); when something made no difference, it provoked no preference and so left one unmoved. English took the word in through Old French during the late 1400s, first carrying the sense of impartiality or lack of distinction, then drifting toward the modern meaning of emotional detachment or simple lack of interest. The same ferre root carries through familiar words like transfer and refer, where the idea of carrying something along is still visible. The spelling trap sits in that unstressed middle: writers hear 'in-DIFF-rence' and may drop the second 'e', forgetting the regular -ence ending and the doubled 'f' inherited from differre.

How the word is built

• in- (not)
• dif- (apart, from dis-)
• fer (to carry, bear)
• -ence (noun suffix)