[
UK
/ˌɪndɪtˈɜːmɪnət/
]
[ US /ˌɪndɪˈtɝmɪnɪt/ ]
[ US /ˌɪndɪˈtɝmɪnɪt/ ]
ADJECTIVE
-
not precisely determined or established; not fixed or known in advance
an indeterminate future
an indeterminate point of law
the influence of environment is indeterminate
a zillion is a large indeterminate number
of indeterminate age -
not leading to a definite ending or result
an indeterminate campaign -
(of a quantity) having no definite value, as an equation that cannot be solved
0/0 is an indeterminate form -
of uncertain or ambiguous nature
the equivocal (or indeterminate) objects painted by surrealists -
having a capacity for continuing to grow at the apex
an indeterminate stem
How To Use indeterminate In A Sentence
- The Arithmetica is a collection of 130 problems giving numerical solutions of determinate equations (those with a unique solution), and indeterminate equations.
- The indeterminate sentence means it will be up to the parole board to decide when it is safe for the man to be released on licence.
- Rather, the smell of the place urges me indeterminately, diffusedly, to truantry. Journeys to Bagdad
- The propagules of these predominantly arctic/alpine grasses consist of indeterminate spikelets, which revert to vegetative growth before dehiscing from the parent plant.
- It is not clear whether Elizabeth is referring here to the deconstructionist theory of the late twentieth century which undermined the assumption that texts have intentional, recuperable meanings — in which case Kafka is a bad example, because his texts were recognized as being radically indeterminate in meaning well before the advent of poststructuralism — or whether she is saying that Kafka was a kind of prophet of deconstruction. Disturbing the Peace
- An indeterminate outcome was defined as resolution of signs and symptoms of infection with a need for continued antimicrobial suppression.
- An adequate account of boredom, then, must explain in one sense that only something indeterminate is lacking.
- Some organisms, including sponges, barnacles, and encrusting coralline algae, can, however, survive overgrowth, without apparent damage, for indeterminate periods of time or may even benefit from being overgrown.
- Despite the figurative grotesquerie, which is more nuisance than threat, it is a painting of nothing — no thing as such but atmosphere — a moody, indeterminate matter expressive of an interior mental state conjured through paint and paint alone. Ensor Unmasked
- Our guide is of indeterminate age, with teeth as exposed and raw as the crags of the mountains around us.
