indefinite
/ɪnˈdɛfɪnət
/adjective
1Lasting for an unknown or unstated length of time: they may face indefinite detention...
- Until recently, though, they failed to do so, and Chapters capitalized on this reluctance by deferring payments - to everyone - for an almost indefinite length.
- In most cases, such detail is stored for indefinite lengths of time.
- Readers of the Star Tribune will remain in their cloud of unknowing for the indefinite future.
Synonyms
unknown, indeterminate, unspecified, unlimited, unrestricted, undecided, undetermined, undefined, unfixed, unsettled, unresolved, uncertain;
limitless, infinite, endless, immeasurable
2Not clearly expressed or defined; vague: an indefinite number of generations...
- Most mainstream politics have capitulated to the normalization of a state of indefinite, vague and continuous low-level war.
- But should so vague and indefinite a threat to peace be sufficient reason for military intervention?
- The water is deep here and such a dark blue that the lines of the tiles at the bottom are obscured, indefinite.
Synonyms
vague, ill-defined, unclear, loose, general, imprecise, inexact, nebulous, blurred, fuzzy, hazy, confused, obscure, ambiguous, equivocal, doubtful, dubious
2.1 Grammar (Of a word, inflection, or phrase) not determining the person, thing, time, etc. referred to: in Greek the dual contrasts with the indefinite plural...
- A sentence stating that something exists, usually consisting of there, the verb be, and an indefinite noun phrase: There's a tavern in the town.
- On this account, it is the polysemy of the indefinite article that gives rise to the ambiguity of the indefinite noun phrase.
- While bare plurals are ambiguous between the two readings, indefinite singulars can only refer to a rule or a regulation.
Derivatives
indefiniteness
/ noun ...- Anxiety is endowed with a certain character of indefiniteness and objectlessness; correct usage even changes its name when it has found an object, and in that case speaks instead of fear.
- What we see, then, is a subtle mix of the fixedness that a posed portrait inevitably generates and a blurred indefiniteness, partly from camera shake and partly from the haze created by bright sunlight or late afternoon shadow.
- Such matters are embedded in a gray sector of controversy and indefiniteness and are likely to remain so for the next decade, at the very least.
Origin
Mid 16th century: from Latin indefinitus, from in- 'not' + definitus 'defined, set within limits' (see definite).