Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. Lack of interest or concern, especially regarding matters of general importance or appeal; indifference.
- n. Lack of emotion or feeling; impassiveness.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. Want of feeling; absence or suppression of passion, emotion, or excitement; insensibility; indifference.
- n. Synonyms Indifference, Insensibility, Impassibility, Apathy, Stoicism, Unconcern, Phlegm, Calmness, torpor, coldness, coolness, unfeelingness, lethargy, immobility. (See list under indifference.) Indifference denotes absence of feeling, passion, or desire toward a particular object: as, indifference to pain or ridicule. Apathy commonly implies a general want of feeling, a complete indifference in regard to anything, due to want of interest or attention, as in the case of a repressed or sluggish intellect, or of extreme illness or affliction. Insensibility and impassibility suggest the lack of capacity for feeling, or an absence of susceptibility, being qualities rather than states of mind. Indifference arising from impassibility relates more particularly to internal, that arising from insensibility to external, impressions; the former is, moreover, more profound and radical than the latter. Indifference may be an entirely proper state under the circumstances; insensibility and impassibility are always at least to be pitied; unconcern is always and indifference sometimes blameworthy, as cold and selfish. Stoicism is a studied suppression of feeling, or the concealment especially of painful feeling by force of will. Unconcern is absence of solicitude. (See care.) Phlegm most suggestive of physical temperament; it is a constitutional dullness or sluggishness, an incapability of being aroused by anything. Calmness is a tranquillity resulting from the mastery of the will over passions and feelings that perhaps are strong and keen, and hence is always commendable.
- n. In the Stoic philos., a certain imperturbability produced in the wise man's soul by sincere rejection of the notion that pleasure is in itself desirable, or pain in itself undesirable and by trained watchfulness to exclude all unreasonable passions (all passions affecting conduct being regarded as unreasonable).
Wiktionary
- n. Complete lack of emotion or motivation about a person, activity, or object; depression; lack of interest or enthusiasm; disinterest.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. Want of feeling; privation of passion, emotion, or excitement; dispassion; -- applied either to the body or the mind. As applied to the mind, it is a calmness, indolence, or state of indifference, incapable of being ruffled or roused to active interest or exertion by pleasure, pain, or passion.
WordNet 3.0
- n. an absence of emotion or enthusiasm
- n. the trait of lacking enthusiasm for or interest in things generally
Etymologies
- From French apathie, from Latin apathīa, from Ancient Greek ἀπάθεια (apatheia, "impassibility”, “insensibility”, “freedom from emotion"), from ἀπαθής (apathēs, "not suffering or having suffered”, “without experience of"), from ἀ- (a-, "not") + πάθος (pathos, "anything that befalls one”, “incident”, “emotion”, “passion"). (Wiktionary)
- Latin apathīa, from Greek apatheia, from apathēs, without feeling : a-, without; see a-1 + pathos, feeling; see kwent(h)- in Indo-European roots. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“Here, the word apathy does not spring easily to mind.”
“And our apathy is the reason why nothing has changed.”
Fiorina: Obama might have to 'eat his words' on health reform
“Is our apathy is another example of American Exceptionalism or is apathy a global phenomenon?”
The Huffington Post: Howard Steven Friedman: The United States of Apathy's Motto is We Don't Care
“That humble acquiescence of the Londoner in his fate which we call his apathy, is the natural consequence of an overwhelming sense of personal insignificance.”
“BHUBANESWAR: Even as Union and State governments were gradually positioning themselves to launch an offensive against Left wing extremists, the ground level police personnel in Orissa on Thursday decided not to attend their duty from February 25 in protest against what they called apathy towards fulfilling their demands.”
“Btw, good point Murph, apathy is useful to those in power.”
“Arab youth's indifference and apathy is a direct result of the massive failure of their parent's generation.”
Global Voices in English » Arab World: “Iran is a Democratic Dictatorship”
“We have been caught up in apathy and self centeredness.”
What do you think of our great president's idea of opening up the U.S. border?
“High definition, digitally-enhanced surround-sound apathy is still just that - apathy.”
“If it's not something you do anyway, then threatening continued apathy is kinda hollow.”
Faith in Leaders, Arnold Kling | EconLog | Library of Economics and Liberty
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘apathy’.
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GRE Barrons Wordlist
A complete Barron's Wordlist for GRE preparation. Your online flashcard replacement.
abase, abash, abate, abbreviate, abdicate, aberrant, aberration, abet, abeyance, abhor, abject, abjure and 4087 more...
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GRE Barron's 800
abate, abdicate, aberrant, abeyance, abject, abjure, abscission, abscond, abstemious, abstinence, abysmal, accretion and 787 more...
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gre
municipal, whit, dissembler, berate, liberally, embellish, dissimilitude, histrionics, flamboyance, bombastic, bovine, calumny and 142 more...
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Russian Doll Words
A Russian Doll word is a word that, when you remove the first and last letters, is either the empty string, or a Russian Doll word. These are all of the 6 or more letter Russian Doll words found in...
waspiness, upraisers, strainers, sporangia, raspiness, prelatess, methanals, gaspiness, washings, uprisers, upraises, upraiser and 2373 more...
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GRE 2014
abase, abate, abdicate, aberrant, abeyance, abhor, abjure, abortive, abound, abrasive, abreast, abridge and 1577 more...
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SAT words
tergiversate, cymotrichous, vigilance, wince, consternation, cower, neutralize, euphony, cacophony, misanthrope, bibliophile, kleptomania and 81 more...
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See list under
Being a list of words which have the phrase "see list under" somewhere in their definitions.
Also, further proof that the folks who put together the Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia w...aggravate, exaggerate, abash, affliction, ponder, abject, dolorous, spelt, See list under, diabolic, apathy
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2
transition, contents, conformity, division, labour, prominent, complexity, interrelationalship, similarity, note, tentative, convey and 75 more...
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big book gre
abase, abbess, abbey, abbot, abdicate, abdomen, abdominal, abduction, abed, aberration, abet, abeyance and 6691 more...
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Emotions
affection, longing, cheerfulness, pride, optimism, relief, success, suprise, irritation, rage, hope, love and 31 more...
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Dude, you really just need to cheer up
words denoting depression, melancholy or general lack of contentment
melancholy, depression, sadness, sad, accidie, lethargy, apathy, lackluster, topor, careless, unenthused, languid and 1 more...
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GRE 3500
abase, abash, abate, aberrant, abeyance, abjure, ablution, abut, accede, accentuate, acerbity, acetic and 133 more...
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Words
My list of words.
veritable, facetious, nadir, quixotic, apropos, acquiesce, ostensible, insipid, egregious, inveterate, coax, adroit and 409 more...
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Prep my Lang
Collection of my wordnik word search
equivocal, anomaly, proliferate, assimilate, obscure, aberration, parse, circumnavigate, circumvent, decipher, prose, impasse and 94 more...
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GRE
abate, abdicate, aberrant, abhor, abjure, abrasive, abridge, abstain, acme, activism, adhere, admonish and 195 more...
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SAT Vocab
Redundant.
problematic, proclivity, prodigal, prodigious, prodigy, profane, profligate, profound, profusion, proliferation, prolific, prologue and 455 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for apathy.

tankexmortis I don't care (he don't care)
I don't care (he don't care)
I don't care about this world
I don't care about that girl
-Ramones, "I Don't Care" Jan 17, 2007