Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- adj. Lacking distinctive qualities; having no individual character or form: "This expression gave temporary meaning to a set of features otherwise nondescript” ( Katherine Anne Porter).
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- Not hitherto described or classed.
- Not easily described; abnormal or amorphous: of no particular kind; odd; unclassifiable; indescribable.
- n. Anything that has not been described.
- n. A person or thing not easily described or classed: usually applied disparagingly.
Wiktionary
- adj. biology Not described (in the academic literature); undescribed, unidentified.
- adj. Without distinguishing qualities or characteristics; unexceptional.
- n. An undistinguished, unexceptional person or thing.
GNU Webster's 1913
- adj. Not hitherto described of no recognizable type or class; odd; abnormal; unclassifiable.
- adj. Dull or uninteresting; undistinguished.
- n. A thing not yet described; that of which no account or explanation has been given; something abnormal, or hardly classifiable.
WordNet 3.0
- adj. lacking distinct or individual characteristics; dull and uninteresting
- n. a person is not easily classified and not very interesting
Etymologies
- From non- + descript. (Wiktionary)
- non- + Latin dēscrīptus, past participle of dēscrībere, to describe; see describe. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
““I…” Sabrina edged a sideways glance at Dylan, who was scrutinizing her closely, his expression nondescript.”
“Most targets were small groups of people in nondescript civilian vehicles that blend in with traffic, or inside unremarkable buildings.”
“Cold and nondescript from the street, it sits about 2 miles from campus, adjacent to a Bed Bath & Beyond and engulfed on three sides by the tall, barbed-wire fence of a local auto body shop.”
“Rolling into the grey streets of the small lowland towns, past open fronted stores set in nondescript concrete slab buildings, the bus was transformed into a mobile drive-in restaurant.”
“The other man, in nondescript garments that were both of the sea and shore, and that must have been uncomfortably hot, slouched and shambled like an overgrown ape.”
“Confederate cavalry — fine, rough-looking fellows, dressed in nondescript uniforms, red shirts, grey tunics; some with boots and some without; armed with sabres and revolvers.”
“Well," replied the other, coolly, "he is what I call a nondescript; like an attorney, or a surgeon, or a civil engineer, or a banker, or a stock-broker, and all that sort of people.”
“As a last ditch effort, I called a nondescript market, a short cab drive away, and bingo, I bought the last one they had sitting on the shelf, for God knows how long.”
“The other, known simply as Serial Shooter, has killed five people and wounded 16, shooting from inside what Phoenix police can only identify as a nondescript four-door sedan.”
“There was a string of people already straggling in, whom it was not difficult to identify as the nondescript messengers, go – betweens, and errand – bearers of the place.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘nondescript’.
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GRE 2014
abate, abdicate, abase, aberrant, abeyance, abhor, abjure, abortive, abound, abrasive, abreast, abridge and 1577 more...
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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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7thGradeWords
horde, doggedly, retina, frail, jovial, insidious, injudicious, brazen, tentative, hortle, adaver, benign and 91 more...
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N
letters starting with n
nadir, naive, narcissist, nascent, natation, natty, nauseate, nautical, nebulous, necromancy, nefarious, negate and 24 more...
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lost in translation
As a native Spanish speaker, I always found it easy to find words that were missing in the English language that conveyed the precise meaning I cared for in Spanish. In undertaking a writing projec...
surreptitious, elusive, nondescript, demeanor, mannerisms, nonsensical, numb, obfuscate, pervaded, preemptive, stagnate, resilient and 5 more...
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The Sog Collection
My big word list.
chaos, flaccid, empirical, flotsam, cacophony, grumble, assuage, awe, romance, mortality, coalesce, fortuitous and 3282 more...
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andystardust's Words
liminal, soporific, solipsism, calumny, sanguine, egregious, inimical, corpus, divulge, a fortiori, salutary, evanescence and 118 more...
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Words I like
This is a list of my favourite words (phrases) in english, as a second language. I love them mostly because of how they sound and their meaning.
ninja, cookie, skill, zip, plentiful, digg, debris, pancake, cucumber, fetch, pot, backpack and 461 more...
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Words from "Pearls Before Breakfast"
nondescript, shrewd, seed money, bureaucrat, indeterminate, fungible, cupidity, banal, grandeur, utilitarian, buffer, ecstatic and 123 more...
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ADW1
obdurate, obstinate, behest, injunction, enjoin, circumspect, ensconce, discursive, lugubrious, doleful, somber, ken and 2476 more...
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Vocab++
Words as I learn them.
fetid, mezzanine, hiatus, austerity, subliminal, resplendent, implacable, impugn, debase, exiguous, cirque, holster and 2538 more...
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my words
interminable, effete, convocation, philistines, malaise, foibles, deputation, anathematized, morass, stalwart, proselytize, abet and 405 more...
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Tolland's list
Those I've come across and try to keep fresh within my mind.
clandestine, dysphoric, indictive, vigil, fractious, assiduous, indefatigable, ubiquitous, insidious, paroicous, aplomb, sangfroid and 654 more...
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Tawkward
Verbal 'wtf' exchanges; odd moments of conversation and socializing.
somniloquy, bafflegab, syllepsis, sesquipedalian, whinge, divulge, anacoluthon, anaphora, sumpsimus, persiflage, eristic, overtones and 198 more...
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Collage's Words
subtle, calamity, impale, qat, painterly, piebald, surly, nihilistic, repine, slake, larder, sepulchre and 349 more...
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barron's 1100
paradox, fallacy, compound, prognosticate, implore, annals, badger, steep, furtive, laconic, hapless, plethora and 109 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for nondescript.
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