Word.ws English Dictionary

indiscriminate

/ɪn.dɪsˈkɹɪm.ɪn.ət/

indiscriminate adjective: not marked by discrimination or discernment; (by extension) confused, promiscuous.

Adjective

indiscriminate (comparative more indiscriminate, superlative most indiscriminate)

  1. Not marked by discrimination or discernment; (by extension) confused, promiscuous.
    • Otanes […] commanded an indiscriminate slaughter, without regard to age or to place.1838, Connop Thirwall, History of Greece, volume II. xiv. 195
    • The UK's fishing industry has complained that Ocean is “indiscriminate” (arguably an ironic adjective for anyone involved in trawling).2025 May 17, Henry Mance, “Now we are almost out of time”, in FT Weekend (Life & Arts section), London: The Financial Times Ltd., →ISSN, →OCLC, page 12
  2. Without care in making distinctions, thoughtless.
    • How can anyone be so indiscriminate in making friends as he is?
    • An animal so indiscriminate in its eating habits that it eats coal, boat cushions, and tomtoms, would be only too eager to taste a swimmer or a diver—which must look more edible than an unopened can of salmon.1983, Richard Ellis, The Book of Sharks, Knopf, →ISBN, page 126

indiscriminate meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Urdu and Bengali

indiscriminate in Hindi

indiscriminate, unbridled
अंधाधुंध andhādhundh

indiscriminate in Tamil

குழப்பநிலை செய்த, கண்மூடித்தனமாக செய்த

indiscriminate in Urdu

اناپ شناپ, اندھادھند, بلافرق

indiscriminate in Bengali

ছবিচারহীন, নির্বিচার, বাছবিচারহীন
More languagesFewer languages
indiscriminate in Malayalam
വിവേചനമില്ലാത്ത, വകതിരിവില്ലാത്ത, ഭേദാഭേദമില്ലാത്ത, വിവേചനാരഹിതമായ
indiscriminate in Kannada
ಅವ್ಯವಸ್ಥಿತ, ಗೊಂದಲದ, ಮನಸೋ ಇಚ್ಛೆಯ, ಸ್ವಚ್ಛಂದ

Examples of indiscriminate in a sentence

  • History shows that attempts to suppress dissent through indiscriminate repression have precisely the opposite effect.
  • Src worked by unleashing an indiscriminate volley of phosphorylation—throwing “on” dozens of molecular switches.
  • Thus we would be conducting warfare which by definition would be indiscriminate rather than selective.

All 14 example sentences with indiscriminate

Synonyms of indiscriminate

Forms of indiscriminate

comparativemore indiscriminate
superlativemost indiscriminate
alternative form (nonstandard)indiscriminant

Origin of indiscriminate

First attested in 1598; from in- + discriminate.

Words formed from indiscriminate

Questions about indiscriminate

What does indiscriminate mean?
Indiscriminate means not marked by discrimination or discernment; (by extension) confused, promiscuous.
What is indiscriminate in Hindi?
Indiscriminate in Hindi is अंधाधुंध (andhādhundh). See Indiscriminate meaning in Hindi.
What part of speech is indiscriminate?
Indiscriminate is an adjective.
How do you pronounce indiscriminate?
Indiscriminate is pronounced /ɪn.dɪsˈkɹɪm.ɪn.ət/ (UK).

Words near indiscriminate in the dictionary

  1. indiscretionary
  2. indiscretions
  3. indiscriminable
  4. indiscriminant
  5. indiscriminantly
  6. indiscriminate
  7. indiscriminated
  8. indiscriminately
  9. indiscriminateness
  10. indiscriminating
  11. indiscriminatingly

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: indiscriminate (page history and authors); अंधाधुंध (Hindi) (page history and authors); indiscriminate (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); indiscriminate (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); Indiscriminate (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); indiscriminate (Olam, E.K. Kurup corpus) (dataset and license); indiscriminate (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: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-indiscriminate.wav.

Cite this entry: “indiscriminate.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/indiscriminate. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.