INDEFINITE

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does indefinite mean? 

• INDEFINITE (adjective)
  The adjective INDEFINITE has 2 senses:

1. vague or not clearly defined or stated

2. not decided or not known

  Familiarity information: INDEFINITE used as an adjective is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• INDEFINITE (adjective)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Vague or not clearly defined or stated

Context example:

he would not answer so indefinite a proposal

Similar:

coy (showing marked and often playful or irritating evasiveness or reluctance to make a definite or committing statement)

indecisive (not clearly defined)

nebulous; unfixed (lacking definition or definite content)

noncommittal (refusing to bind oneself to a particular course of action or view or the like)

one (indefinite in time or position)

Also:

unclear (not clear to the mind)

undefined; vague (not precisely limited, determined, or distinguished)

indistinct (not clearly defined or easy to perceive or understand)

Antonym:

definite (precise; explicit and clearly defined)

Derivation:

indefiniteness; indefinity (the quality of being vague and poorly defined)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Not decided or not known

Context example:

plans are indefinite

Similar:

uncertain (not established beyond doubt; still undecided or unknown)

Derivation:

indefiniteness (the quality of being vague and poorly defined)

 Context examples 

A waft of wind came sweeping down the laurel-walk, and trembled through the boughs of the chestnut: it wandered away—away—to an indefinite distance—it died.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

“We always, in this house, propose a month—an initiatory month. I should be happy, myself, to propose two months—three—an indefinite period, in fact—but I have a partner. Mr. Jorkins.”

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

Any truth is better than indefinite doubt.

(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

An indefinite but relatively small number.

(Few, NCI Thesaurus)

An indefinite large quantity that is considered to be greater than several.

(Many, NCI Thesaurus)

But this particular sample is so short that I can do nothing, and the facts which you have brought me are so indefinite that we have no basis for an investigation.

(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

To Buck it was boundless delight, this hunting, fishing, and indefinite wandering through strange places.

(The Call of the Wild, by Jack London)

But that expression of 'violently in love' is so hackneyed, so doubtful, so indefinite, that it gives me very little idea.

(Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen)

What's that jawbreaker definition about something or other, of Spencer's, that you sprang on us the other day—that indefinite, incoherent homogeneity thing?

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

When technical reasons make the interpretation of atypia difficult, atypia is present but it is not quite to the level of dysplasia, or atypia is present at the bases of the crypts but does not reach the surface of the crypts, then the diagnosis of Barrett esophagus-indefinite for dysplasia is made.

(Dysplasia in Barrett Esophagus, NCI Thesaurus)