indeterminate
Other forms: indeterminately
Indeterminate means not known or decided. When someone contracts a rare stomach parasite but has not been traveling internationally, you might say it had indeterminate origins.
It's important to distinguish indeterminate from undetermined, which means not yet decided. When you buy an antique vase and don't know when it dates from, you might describe it as of an indeterminate era. If you are traveling and don't know when you plan to return home, you could say that your return is as yet undetermined.
-
not precisely determined or established; not fixed or known in advance“of indeterminate age”“a zillion is a large indeterminate number”“an indeterminate point of law”“the influence of environment is indeterminate”“an indeterminate future”synonyms: undetermineduncertainnot established beyond doubt; still undecided or unknowninconclusivenot conclusive; not putting an end to doubt or questioncost-plusdetermining payment based on the actual cost of production plus an agreed-upon fee or rate of profitopen-endedallowing for a spontaneous responseantonyms:determinateprecisely determined or limited or defined; especially fixed by rule or by a specific and constant causefixed(of a number) having a fixed and unchanging value
-
not capable of being determined“the indeterminate number of plant species in the jungle”synonyms:
-
of uncertain or ambiguous nature
-
not leading to a definite ending or result“an indeterminate campaign”synonyms:inconclusivenot conclusive; not putting an end to doubt or question
-
having a capacity for continuing to grow at the apex“an indeterminate stem”synonyms:racemosehaving stalked flowers along an elongated stem that continue to open in succession from below as the stem continues to growantonyms:determinatenot continuing to grow indefinitely at the apexcymosehaving a usually flat-topped flower cluster in which the main and branch stems each end in a flower that opens before those below it or to its side
- MLA
- APA
- Chicago
indeterminate / indeterminable
Vocabulary lists containing indeterminate
Katniss Everdeen must fight for her life in a televised survival competition. Learn these words from the first book of Suzanne Collins's dystopian trilogy.
Arnold Spirit, Jr., a young cartoonist who lives on the Spokane Indian reservation, decides to transfer to a school in which he will be the only American Indian student.
As you read Edgar Allan Poe's "The Pit and the Pendulum," learn this word list. Here are links to lists for texts in Grade 11's Collection 3: Song of Myself, Growing Up Asian in America, poems by Emily Dickinson, Walden, Against Nature, The Minister's Black Veil, The Pit and the Pendulum