How to use indefinite in a sentence

24 example sentences · adjective, noun

Indefinite means without limit; forever, or until further notice; not definite. Example: “Your account will be suspended for an indefinite period of time.”

Examples of indefinite by meaning

adjectiveWithout limit; forever, or until further notice; not definite.

Your account will be suspended for an indefinite period of time.
A federal judge on Wednesday blocked the government from enforcing a controversial statute about the indefinite detention without trial of terrorism suspects.2012 September 12, Charlie Savage, “Judge Rules Against Law on Indefinite Detention”, in The New York Times

adjectiveVague or unclear.

She gave an indefinite answer which nobody really understood.

adjectiveUndecided or uncertain.

I'm still indefinite about what I'm going to study at college.

adjectiveBeing an integral without specified limits.

Don't forget to m the +C when calculating indefinite integrals.

adjectiveDesignating an unspecified or unidentified person or thing or group of persons or things.

the indefinite article

More sentences with indefinite

Definite articles, indefinite articles, and cardinal numbers acting as quantifiers are types of determiners.From the entry determiner
Have you got an indefinite or a fixed-term contract of employment?From the entry fixed-term
In English, idiom requires the indefinite article in a phrase such as "she's an engineer", whereas in Spanish, idiom forbids it.From the entry idiom
The Wiktionary page-blanking vandal was hit with an indefinite block.From the entry block
The term of a lease agreement is the period of time during which the lease is effective, and may be fixed, periodic, or of indefinite duration.From the entry term
Relatedly, there are Fine's penumbral connections which reflect logical relations between indefinite sentences.2000 September 28, Rosanna Keefe, Theories of Vagueness, Cambridge University Press, →ISBN, page 44. From the entry penumbral
In other languages the q-word was morphologically derived from the indefinite word.1985, The Journal of West African Languages. From the entry q-word
In the indefinite period of metœstrus, all the reproductive organs return to a state of rest.1913, Journal of the Royal Microscopical Society, page 567. From the entry metœstrus
His eyes were somewhere indefinite between green and hazel.2012 March 8, Francine J. Colangelo, chapter 10, in Marah Hein: The Legend of a Viking Woman, Bloomington, Ind.: Balboa Press, Hay House…. From the entry hazel
However, this can lead to livelock—the optimistic analog of indefinite blocking in which methods continuously spin without making any further progress.2000, Douglas Lea, Concurrent Programming in Java, Addison-Wesley Professional, →ISBN, page 193. From the entry livelock
A penalty of praemunire involved imprisonment for an indefinite period, ending only with death or the King's pardon.1995, Constance Braithwaite, Conscientious Objection to Various Compulsions under British Law, York: William Sessions, →ISBN, page 20. From the entry praemunire
This is the situation in languages in which the indefinite marker seems to have been derived from the q-word.1985, The Journal of West African Languages. From the entry q-word
Another point of considerable relevance here is that complexes are indefinitely ramifiable, which is to say they are amenable to indefinite inquiry and analysis.2015, Peter Hare, Joseph Palencik, Douglas Anderson, Pragmatism with Purpose: Selected Writings, →ISBN, page 180. From the entry ramifiable
Yellow-ochre is the universal colour, and mealy granules befrost the caps (under 1′′ broad) and stems up to their friable, indefinite rings.2014, James H. Willis, Victorian Toadstools and Mushrooms. From the entry befrost
Again when the olfactory apparatus is exposed to too great a quantity of perfume, nothing but an indefinite odor can be perceived.1931, Annals of Otology, Rhinology and Laryngology 1931-06: Volume 40, Issue 2, Sage Publications, Incorporated, page 487. From the entry hyperconcentrated
The moves also came just one day before almost all of the agency’s direct hires, including its roster of Foreign Service officers, will be put on indefinite administrative leave.2025 February 6, Karoun Demirjian, Aishvarya Kavi, “Trump Administration to Lay Off Nearly All of USAID Staff”, in The New York Times, →ISSN. From the entry administrative leave
While Plog's model is a continuum with indefinite points, he was able to divide tourists into five main groups: psychocentrics, near psychocentrics, midcentrics, near allocentrics, and allocentrics.2020, Peter Robinson, Michael Lück, Stephen L. J. Smith, “Responsible Tourism Management”, in Tourism, 2nd edition, Wallingford…. From the entry allocentric
The indefinite object was drawing away from us at a high speed and eventually disappeared into a veil of atmospherics, very much as a headlight disappearing into a fog.1965, James Holledge, Flying Saucers Over Australia, Sydney: Horwitz Publications, page 28. From the entry headlight

Meaning of indefinite

adjective Without limit; forever, or until further notice; not definite.
adjective Vague or unclear.
adjective Undecided or uncertain.

Full definition of indefinite

Questions about indefinite in a sentence

How do you use indefinite in a sentence?: Indefinite is used as an adjective and noun. For example: “Your account will be suspended for an indefinite period of time.”
What is a short sentence with indefinite?: “the indefinite article”
What does indefinite mean?: Indefinite means without limit; forever, or until further notice; not definite.

Adapted from Wiktionary: indefinite (page history and authors) and the entries each sentence comes from. Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws chose the sentences, left out offensive ones and quotations older than 1900, and marked the word in each. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated: 2026-09-02

Cite this page: “How to use indefinite in a sentence.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/sentences/indefinite. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.