indeterminate

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Matter in a more general sense is the indeterminate, the indefinite and the potential.

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Definitions (22)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (6)

  1. adjective Not precisely determined, determinable, or established: a person of indeterminate age.
  2. adjective Not precisely fixed, as to extent, size, nature, or number: an indeterminate number of plant species in the jungle.
  3. adjective Lacking clarity or precision, as in meaning; vague: an indeterminate turn of phrase.

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Examples (50)

  • The little skull was deemed indeterminate, and the budding world of anthropology happily turned its large brain away from Dart and the audacious suggestion that intelligence might not be the root of human uniqueness. —  Omni: January 1993
  • There's B.O.B. (Seth Rogen), an indestructible, one-eyed glob of blue who gobbles up anything; Dr. Cockroach, Ph. D. (Hugh Laurie), a diminutive scientist with a bug's noggin; the Missing Link (Will Arnett), an ungainly humanoid / amphibian fusion; and Insectosaurus, a larval entity of indeterminate origin who's seven times taller than the female newcomer, now known as Ginormica. —  Variety.com
  • There's also a bizarre sequence in which they whip out giant power hoses and suggestively spray the crowd with some sort of indeterminate, fluffy white substance. —  greatfallstribune.com - Local News
  • They were at his home or in his briefcase for an "indeterminate" amount of time, investigators said. —  Top Stories - Google News
  • The 111th Congress is poised to extend the timeline of America's debt bondage to firmly indeterminate, as we return to our past and become ever more a nation of indentured servants. —  American Thinker
 

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Roget's II Roget's II: The New Thesaurus

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Roget's II: The New Thesaurus, Third Edition by the Editors of the American Heritage® Dictionary. Copyright © 2003, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Etymologies (2)

Toggle American Heritage etymologies American Heritage Dictionary (1)

  1. Middle English, from Latin indēterminātus : in-, not; see in-1 + dēterminātus, determined; see determinate.

Toggle Century etymologies Century Dictionary (1)

  1. from Middle English indeterminat = French indéterminé = Spanish Portuguese indeterminado = Italian indeterminato, from Late Latin indeterminatus, undefined, unlimited, from Latin in- privative + determinatus, defined, limited: see determinate, adjective
 

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/ɪndəˈtərmɪnət/
by American Heritage

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