Indifferent

How to spell indifferent

11 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce indifferent

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does indifferent mean?

1. adjectiveHaving no particular interest, concern, or sympathy; unmoved either way.
2. adjectiveOf only moderate quality or ability; neither particularly good nor bad.

Indifferent in a sentence

• The manager seemed completely indifferent to the staff complaints.

• The hotel served an indifferent breakfast that nobody finished.

• Voters were largely indifferent about the proposed road changes.

• Reviewers called the film an indifferent effort from a usually strong director.

Where does indifferent come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word traces back to the Latin indifferentem, the accusative of indifferens, which meant 'making no difference' or 'of no importance'. It was formed from the negative prefix in- ('not') joined to differens, the present participle of the verb differre, meaning 'to carry apart' or 'to differ', itself built from dis- ('apart') and ferre ('to carry or bear'). The original Latin sense was neutral and almost mathematical: something that did not tilt one way or the other. English took the word in during the late 1300s, by way of Old French, and it carried that balanced 'neither one nor the other' idea forward into both the 'unconcerned' meaning and the later 'mediocre, neither good nor bad' meaning. The same ferre root that means 'to carry' also lies behind everyday relatives such as 'transfer', 'refer', and 'differ', which is a handy reminder that indifferent keeps the single f and the -ent ending of differ, not the -ant spelling.

How the word is built

• in- (not)
• differ (from Latin differre, to carry apart, differ)
• -ent (adjective suffix)