disinterest
UK/dɪsˈɪntɹɛst/
disinterest noun: an absence of interest (attention or curiosity).
Noun
disinterest (uncountable)
- An absence of interest (attention or curiosity).
- She eyed him over her martini with cool disinterest.
- […] there was no neighbourliness, worth the word, between what the postmistress called ‘our old people’ and ‘that new set’. Polite calls paid by the former on the latter were as politely returned; but at that it ended. The gulf of mutual disinterest was unbridged.1948, Andrew Caldecott, chapter 2, in Fires Burn Blue
- Synonyms:
- apathy, indifference, uninterest
- The absence of interest (bias or stake).
- He maintained a posture of scrupulous disinterest in Balkan affairs […]2012, Christopher Clark, The Sleepwalkers, Penguin, published 2013, page 125
- Synonyms:
- impartiality
- What is contrary to interest or advantage.
- Now the progress of Knowledg being stopt by extreme Confidence on the one hand, and Diffidence on the other; I think that both are necessary, though perhaps one is more seasonable: For to believe that every thing is certain, is as great a disinterest to Science, as to conceive that nothing is so:1676, Joseph Glanvill, Essays on Several Important Subjects in Philosophy and Religion, London: John Baker and Henry Mortlock, Essay 2 “Of Scepticism and Certainty,” p. 45
- Synonyms:
- disadvantage
Verb
disinterest (third-person singular simple present disinterests, present participle disinteresting, simple past and past participle disinterested)
- To render disinterested.
- The Moscow Bolsheviks may disinterest themselves in the fate of Ukrainian or White Russian territories under Polish rule; but nationalist States in the Ukraine or White Russia could never evince such indifference.1935, Lewis Namier, “German Arms and Aims”, in In the Margin of History, London: Macmillan, published 1939
Adjective
disinterest (comparative more disinterest, superlative most disinterest)
- Free of personal bias.
- […] if they [weaker people] can be rul’d by an understanding without, when they have none within, they shall receive this advantage, that their owne passions shall not transport their mindes, and the divisions and weaknesse of their owne sense and notices shall not make them uncertaine, and...1653, Jeremy Taylor, Eniautos: A Course of Sermons for all the Sundaies of the Year, London: Richard Royston, Sermon 23, Part 2, p. 300
- Synonyms:
- disinterested
disinterest meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Malayalam and Kannada
disinterest in Hindi
- disinterest, indifference
- अरुचि aruci, निरपेक्षता nirpekṣatā
disinterest in Tamil
- பாகுபாடிலாத ஈடுபாடு, சாருமை நாட்டமின்மை
disinterest in Malayalam
- neutrality, impartiality, objectivity
- താല്പര്യമില്ലായ്മ, പ്രത്യേക താല്പര്യമില്ലായ്മ, നിസ്സംഗത, വ്യാസംഗം, നിസ്സംഗത്വം, നിഷ്പക്ഷത
- lack of interest, indifference, unconcern
- അവ്യപേക്ഷ, താല്പര്യമില്ലായ്മ, ഉദാസം, ഉദാസീനത, മന്ദഗുണം, ഉദാസീനഭാവം
disinterest in Kannada
- ಅನಾಸಕ್ತನಾಗು, ಬೇಸರಿಕೆ, ಬೇಸಱಿಕೆ, ಬೇಸರ, ಬೇಸರು
Examples of disinterest in a sentence
- The root of the matter, as a letter and an editorial in our November issue pointed out, is disinterest in the railway, whatever it does.1960 January, G. Freeman Allen, “"Condor"—British Railways' fastest freight train”, in Trains Illustrated, page 46:
- Salem politely admired the rifles, but his disinterest was hard to mask.2012, Dave Eggers, chapter 26, in A Hologram for the King, San Francisco: McSweeney’s Books, page 231:
Synonyms of disinterest
Forms of disinterest
| Verb | |
|---|---|
| third-person singular present | disinterests |
| present participle | disinteresting |
| past participle | disinterested |
| past | disinterested |
| Adjective | |
| comparative | more disinterest |
| superlative | most disinterest |
Origin of disinterest
From dis- + interest.
Questions about disinterest
- What does disinterest mean?
- Disinterest means an absence of interest (attention or curiosity).
- What is disinterest in Hindi?
- Disinterest in Hindi is अरुचि (aruci), निरपेक्षता (nirpekṣatā). See Disinterest meaning in Hindi.
- How do you use disinterest in a sentence?
- The root of the matter, as a letter and an editorial in our November issue pointed out, is disinterest in the railway, whatever it does.
- What part of speech is disinterest?
- Disinterest can be a noun, a verb or an adjective.
- How do you pronounce disinterest?
- Disinterest is pronounced /dɪsˈɪntɹɛst/ (UK).
Words near disinterest in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: disinterest (page history and authors); अरुचि (Hindi) (page history and authors); disinterest (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); disinterest (Olam, E.K. Kurup corpus) (dataset and license); disinterest (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-disinterest.ogg.
Cite this entry: “disinterest.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/disinterest. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.