Definitions

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

  • noun The state or quality of being indifferent.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun The state of being indifferent, as between persons or things; absence of prepossession or bias; impartiality.
  • noun The state of being indifferent or apathetic; the absence of definite preference or choice; want of differentiation or variation of feeling; absence of special interest; apathy; insensibility.
  • noun The character of being indifferent or immaterial; want of essential difference with respect to choice, use or non-use, etc.; immateriality; unimportance: as, the indifference of particular actions or things.
  • noun The condition of being indifferent in character or quality; a falling short of the standard of excellence; comparative mediocrity: as, the indifference of one's penmanship or work. Also indifferency.

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

  • noun The quality or state of being indifferent, or not making a difference; lack of sufficient importance to constitute a difference; absence of weight; insignificance.
  • noun Passableness; mediocrity.
  • noun Impartiality; freedom from prejudice, prepossession, or bias.
  • noun Absence of anxiety or interest in respect to what is presented to the mind; unconcernedness.

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

  • noun The state of being indifferent.
  • noun Unbiased impartiality.
  • noun Unemotional apathy.
  • noun A lack of enthusiasm.
  • noun Unconcerned nonchalance.

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

  • noun the trait of lacking enthusiasm for or interest in things generally
  • noun unbiased impartial unconcern
  • noun apathy demonstrated by an absence of emotional reactions
  • noun the trait of remaining calm and seeming not to care; a casual lack of concern

Etymologies

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Examples

  • Up next here, three congressmen voicing anger, frustration, and outrage at President Bush for what they call his indifference to those imprisoned Border Patrol agents, and the president's outright arrogance.

    CNN Transcript Jan 21, 2007 2007

  • The liberty which we call indifference is a word without an idea — an absurdity; for this would be to determine without reason; it would be an effect without a cause.

    A Philosophical Dictionary 2007

  • Up next here, three congressmen voicing anger, frustration, and outrage at President Bush for what they call his indifference to those imprisoned Border Patrol agents, and the president's outright arrogance.

    CNN Transcript Jan 20, 2007 2007

  • Farrow said she was baffled and frustrated by what she called the indifference of Britons to Darfur, the region of Sudan where 200,000 people have died and 2.5 million been forced from their homes in four years of fighting between the Sudanese government and local rebels.

    ANC Daily News Briefing 2007

  • But the court did issue a stinging rebuke for what it calls their indifference to their constitutional duties.

    CNN Transcript Dec 27, 2006 2006

  • Brana's (ph) uncle, Rashid, blames their deaths on what he calls the indifference the American troops who control Baghdad and on Saddam Hussein, who released tens of thousands of convicts before the war.

    CNN Transcript Aug 28, 2003 2003

  • She then closed up the hut and covered the few coals with ashes so that the fire would not die out entirely, just as a man does with his inner feelings; he covers them with the ashes of his life, which he calls indifference, so that they may not be deadened by daily contact with his fellows.

    The Social Cancer Jos�� Rizal 1878

  • That "indifference" is the key word, and I wonder if it's this that's at the root of the confusion between appropriation and (mis) representation.

    Cultural Appropriation Hal Duncan 2006

  • Is this representative of a certain indifference to the qualities of commercial manga or is there some sort of cultural forbearance and variation in standards at work here?

    Standards and practices 2010

  • Is this representative of a certain indifference to the qualities of commercial manga or is there some sort of cultural forbearance and variation in standards at work here?

    Lots of links 2010

Comments

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  • (The protagonist of this passage has just thumped his sister for trying to sabotage one of his drawings):

    "He could only think of the grey smear on the picture. Coldness and indifference spread through him like a stain. Later he heard his father come and murmurs of conversation from the living room. Mr Thaw opened the bedroom door abruptly saying,

    'Duncan! Did you punch Ruth in the stomach?'

    'Yes. We were fighting.'

    'Look, Duncan, I'm glad you're prepared to defend yourself but you should never punch a woman in the stomach.'

    'I'm sorry. I don't know how to hurt women properly yet.'

    His father left and he lay inert, thinking of the picture."

    - 'Lanark', Alasdair Gray.

    December 2, 2007

  • INDIFFERENCE

    In loopy links the canker crawls,

    Tads twiddle in their 'polian glee,

    Yet sinks my heart as water falls.

    The loon that laughs, the babe that bawls,

    The wedding wear, the funeral palls,

    Are neither here nor there to me.

    Of life the mingled wine and brine

    I sit and sip pipslipsily.

    _Anonymous_.

    February 9, 2009

  • noun: the trait of seeming not to care

    In an effort to fight indifference, the president of the college introduced a new, stricter grading system.

    October 20, 2016