impersonal
/ɪmˈpəːs(ə)n(ə)l
/adjective
1Not influenced by, showing, or involving personal feelings: the impersonal power of a government...
- The subject matter may be impersonal and unemotional but it doesn't make it any more enjoyable to know that.
- It might suggest a curt, efficient, formal, impersonal, or even angry attitude about the conversation.
- But a book is always an extension of its author, however impersonal the subject matter.
Synonyms
neutral, unbiased, non-partisan, non-discriminatory, unprejudiced, unswayed, objective, detached, disinterested, dispassionate, free from discrimination, without favouritism, with no axe to grind, without fear or favour;
fair, just, equitable, balanced, even-handed
aloof, distant, remote, reserved, withdrawn, unemotional, unfeeling, unsentimental, dispassionate, passionless, cold, cool, frigid, unresponsive, indifferent, unconcerned;
formal, stiff, rigid, wooden, starchy, stilted, restrained, self-controlled, matter-of-fact, businesslike, clinical
informal stand-offish
rare gelid
1.1(Of a place or organization) featureless and anonymous: an impersonal tower block...
- But online stores are cold, impersonal places devoid of any sense of human contact, where every book is merely an itemised commodity.
- At the time, however, my dad deplored the feeling that he was becoming just another number in an impersonal organization, a cog in the machine.
- You may have a tendency to avoid gyms because you think of them as unattractive, boring or impersonal places.
2Not existing as a person: he gradually came to believe in an impersonal God...
- God is not a personal heavenly Father but an impersonal force.
3 Grammar (Of a verb) used only with a formal subject (in English usually it) and expressing an action not attributable to a definite subject (as in it is snowing).Both Bactrian and Pagolak recall the mysterious Ursprache of Borges's Tlön, which contains no nouns but only impersonal verbs, and in which famous poems consist of a single enormous word....
- The it in suffice it to say is an impersonal or indefinite pronoun, one that functions as a grammatical placeholder without supplying much real meaning.
- A person is now ‘impersonal,’ as in an impersonal verb construction, as in ‘it is raining.’
Derivatives
impersonality
/ noun ...- Woolf's notion of diffuse impersonality is not merely a theoretical condition for artistic creativity; it is the beginning of a mystical idea, an attempt to escape the cell of self-knowledge, a longing for real things.
- Computer presentations have become the standard in many fields, although there is a substantial wailing about the attendant impersonality (and often incomprehensibility) of the result.
- However, though we may on calm reflection see the virtues of allowing large parts of our lives to follow well-worn paths, modern people periodically feel themselves frustrated by the impersonality and predictability of life.
impersonally
/ adverb ...- In ancient Athens, the Court of the Areopagiticus was set up specifically to deal justice impersonally to criminals and bring to an end the feuds and demands for family vengeance which brutalised society.
- Market forces, working impersonally and without ‘intelligent design,’ can give you a pretty good glimpse at the future.
- My objection would be more to huge schools and school districts where rules for the district are decided impersonally at some big administrative building.
Origin
Late Middle English (in sense 3): from late Latin impersonalis, from Latin in- 'not' + personalis (see personal).
Rhymes
- single-action
- single blessedness
- single-blind
- single bond
- single-breasted
- single carriageway
- single-cell protein
- single combat
- single-copy
- single cream
- single currency
- single-cut
- single-decker
- single digging
- singledom
- single-elimination
- single end
- single-ended
- single-entry
- Single European Act
- single European currency
- single file
- single-foot
- single-handed
- single-handedly