Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • adjective Having casual sexual relations frequently with different partners; indiscriminate in the choice of sexual partners.
  • adjective Lacking standards of selection; acting without careful judgment; indiscriminate.
  • adjective Showing little forethought or critical judgment; casual.
  • adjective Consisting of diverse, unrelated parts or individuals; confused.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Consisting of parts or individuals grouped together without order; mingled indiscriminately; confused.
  • Forming part of a mingled or confused crowd or mass.
  • Distributed or applied without order or discrimination; common; indiscriminate; not restricted to one individual: as, promiscuous sexual intercourse.
  • Casual; accidental.
  • Synonyms Promiscuous, Miscellaneous. Promiscuous emphasizes the complete lack of arrangement; miscellaneous the throwing together of different kinds. Hence we speak of promiscuous, but not of miscellaneous, confusion; of miscellaneous, not promiscuous, articles in a magazine. A work-bag contains a miscellaneous collection of things, which should never be allowed to become promiscuous.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • adjective Consisting of individuals united in a body or mass without order; mingled; confused; undistinguished.
  • adjective Distributed or applied without order or discrimination; not restricted to an individual; common; indiscriminate.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • adjective Made up of various disparate elements mixed together; of disorderly composition.
  • adjective Made without careful choice; indiscriminate.
  • adjective Indiscriminate in choice of sexual partners.
  • adjective networking The mode in which a NIC gathers all network traffic instead of getting only the traffic intended for it.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • adjective casual and unrestrained in sexual behavior
  • adjective not selective of a single class or person

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[From Latin prōmiscuus, possessed equally : prō-, intensive pref.; see pro– + miscēre, to mix; see meik- in Indo-European roots.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Latin prōmiscuus ("mixed, not separated"), from prō ("forth") + misceō ("mix").

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Examples

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  • PromIscOUS

    May 8, 2008