Word.ws English Dictionary

How to use indifferent in a sentence

40 example sentences · adjective, noun, adverb

Indifferent means ambivalent; unconcerned; uninterested, apathetic. Example: “He was indifferent to the proposal, since it didn’t affect him, either way.”

Examples of indifferent by meaning

adjectiveAmbivalent; unconcerned; uninterested, apathetic.

  • He was indifferent to the proposal, since it didn’t affect him, either way.
  • When you have only three francs you are quite indifferent; for three francs will feed you till tomorrow, and you cannot think further than that.1933 January 9, George Orwell [pseudonym; Eric Arthur Blair], chapter III, in Down and Out in Paris and London, London: Victor Gollancz...

adjectiveIndicating or reflecting a lack of concern or care.

  • She responded with an indifferent shrug.
  • Then she shrugged, the mildest, most indifferent gesture he had ever seen, and smiled.1953, James Baldwin, “Gabriel’s Prayer”, in Go Tell It on the Mountain (A Laurel Book), New York, N.Y.: Dell Publishing Co., published...
  • I would sink into the indifferent squalor of old age.1990, J. M. Coetzee, Age of Iron, London: Secker & Warburg, page 33

adjectiveMediocre (usually used negatively in modern usage).

  • The long distance and the indifferent roads made the journey impossible.
  • The Blue Jays' performance has been indifferent this season.
  • And the cello: it had been an indifferent performance.1965, Muriel Spark, The Mandelbaum Gate, Part 2, page 252

adjectiveHaving no preference.

  • I am indifferent between the two plans.
  • The scientific worker aims at knowledge and is quite indifferent whether people like or dislike the knowledge he produces.1933 September, H[erbert] G[eorge] Wells, “Intellectual Antagonism to the Modern State”, in The Shape of Things to Come, 1st American...

adjectiveNot making a difference; without significance or importance.

  • Even if one appliance consumes an indifferent amount of energy when left on stand-by overnight, together they can represent 10% of the electricity demand of a household.
  • We talked of indifferent things, and watched the juggler who was tossing torches in the Stadium, for twilight was falling.1956, Mary Renault, “Chapter 28”, in The Last of the Wine, New York: Modern Library, page 374

adverbTo some extent, in some degree (intermediate between very and not at all); moderately, tolerably, fairly.

  • The face of the Moon appearing to me to be full of indifferent high mountains.

More sentences with indifferent

  • He could choose anything indifferent to, or even in spite of, its aesthetic merits.2014, Eva Diaz, The Experimenters: Chance and Design at Black Mountain College. From the entry nominative
  • Where other visitors exuded sentiment by the libraryful, Whymper remained cold, indifferent and judgemental.2011, Fergus Fleming, Killing Dragons: The Conquest Of The Alps. From the entry libraryful
  • Because the little bloke looked at them quite straight, so observant, and so indifferent.1923, D[avid] H[erbert] Lawrence, “Torestin”, in Kangaroo, London: Martin Secker […], →OCLC, page 1. From the entry bloke
  • Wallace had broken his spirit, and he was listless now, indifferent to what happened.1901, William Somerset Maugham, chapter 21, in The Hero. From the entry listless
  • Dripping with unearned knowingness, indifferent to the factual debate involved.2007 February 4, David Berreby, “No ____ Need Apply”, in New York Times. From the entry knowingness
  • I never saw a cross, or indifferent, or bad-tempered nurse, and never left the unit without sleevesful of damp Kleenex.2002 January 1, Vicki Woods, “The Chancellor’s baby has already cost me a tenner”, in The Daily Telegraph, number 45,582, page 20. From the entry sleeveful
  • Hong Kong is an indifferent guardian of its past, with old buildings too frequently torn down in favor of nondescript high-rises.1999 April 18, Mark Landler, “WHAT'S DOING IN; Hong Kong”, in The New York Times, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 04 Sep 2009…. From the entry City of Victoria
  • The designer's work is unfortunately marred by indifferent printing.1982 August 28, Mark McHarry, “A Minor Delight”, in Gay Community News, volume 10, number 7, page 12. From the entry face
  • He was, of course, one of those himself now, but he was indifferent to the duties and pleasures of sodality.1968, Anthony Burgess, Enderby Outside. From the entry sodality
  • The cook, who had been an indifferent worker on the trip over, came aboard drunk and was immediately paid off.1959, Albert Lansing, Endurance, page 25. From the entry pay off
  • Said Hughes was sublimely indifferent to the whole bang shoot.1942, John Vernon Hewes, The High Courts of Heaven: A Story of the R.A.F., page 132. From the entry the whole bang shoot
  • But Master Nathaniel was indifferent to these manifestations of unpopularity.1926, Hope Mirrlees, chapter 9, in Lud-in-the-Mist. From the entry carminative
  • Spinola acquiesced with the air of one to whom a three-penny bit or a kingdom would have been equally indifferent.1923, Ernest Bramah [pseudonym; Ernest Brammah Smith], “(please specify the page)”, in The Eyes of Max Carrados, London: Grant Richards…. From the entry three-penny bit
  • His vote demonstrates that the people of Philadelphia are not asleep at the switch, are not indifferent to their political duties.1909, Clinton Rogers Woodruff, “Municipal Review 1907-1908,”, in The American Journal of Sociology, volume 14, number 4, page 488. From the entry asleep at the switch
  • Lady Britomart is . . . well mannered and yet appallingly outspoken and indifferent to the opinion of her interlocutory.1905, George Bernard Shaw, Major Barbara, act I. From the entry interlocutory
  • They probably feel indifferent or mad.2014, Todd Whitaker, Dealing with Difficult Teachers, Third Edition, page 84. From the entry mediocre
  • While some companies seem largely indifferent to gold farming, others see gold farmers as unfairly extracting value from property that they do not own.2010 October 26, Greg Lastowka, Virtual Justice: The New Laws of Online Worlds, Yale University Press, →ISBN, →OL. From the entry parasitic
  • Man is no longer an insignificant accident in an immense and indifferent universe, but the very center and foreshoot of the vast evolutionary process.1987, Douglas Angus, The Best Short Stories of the Modern Age, page x. From the entry foreshoot
  • Throughout their long history as a minority, Anglo-Indians learned their "father tongue" but were indifferent to their "mother tongue," an indigenous Indian language.1973, Noel Pitts Gist, Roy Dean Wright, Marginality and Identity, →ISBN. From the entry mother tongue
  • She was looking at the hills as if to see there the first and unbetrayable Miss Brodie, indifferent to criticism as a crag.1961, Muriel Spark, chapter 3, in The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, London: Macmillan. From the entry unbetrayable
  • But the braggart boaster cried that an old Nobodaddy was in his cups it was muchwhat indifferent and he would not lag behind his lead.1922 February 2, James Joyce, “[Episode 14]”, in Ulysses, Paris: Shakespeare and Company […], →OCLC. From the entry muchwhat
  • He was too plump and rosy to wear hopelessness with success, and too indifferent to merit such a term as mere laziness.1922 November, A.E. Dingle, “A Bride from the Sea: A Complete Novelette—The Strange Cruise of the Seafarer and Her Crew of a Sailor, a…. From the entry bovinely
  • The crowning tragedy—or sick joke—is that those who have postured and preened the most ostentatiously about their devotion to the Constitution have been the most indifferent to its destruction.2012, Mike Lofgren, The Party Is Over. From the entry preen
  • Lundgren claimed that Federated had conducted a focus group and the analysis showed that most people were either indifferent to the name change or preferred the Macy's brand.2010, Gayle Soucek, Marshall Field's: The Store That Helped Build Chicago, page 136. From the entry brand
  • As a nation we seem to be callously indifferent to the misery of even our own compatriots, kith and kin, and stone-heartedly immune to the woes of others.1974, Ikram Azam, Sons of the Soil: Some Poems, Short Plays, Stories and Articles about War and Peace, Love, Life and Death in Pakistan…. From the entry stone-heartedly
  • He cannot afford to be indifferent to social habits of man, the pattern of life, individual likes and dislikes of the dwellers, household furnishings and equippings.1969, Journal of Social Research, volume 12, page 90. From the entry equipping
  • In the realm of space-time which we are considering, there is only one passage, from the aesthetic (positive or indifferent) creation to juridical recognition, from liberty to discipline.1963, Giacomo Devoto, translated by M[ills] F[ox] Edgerton, Jr., “Space-Time”, in Linguistics and Literary Criticism (Language and…. From the entry aestheticity

Meaning of indifferent

  1. adjective Ambivalent; unconcerned; uninterested, apathetic.
  2. adjective Indicating or reflecting a lack of concern or care.
  3. adjective Mediocre (usually used negatively in modern usage).

Full definition of indifferent

Questions about indifferent in a sentence

How do you use indifferent in a sentence?
Indifferent is used as an adjective, noun and adverb. For example: “He was indifferent to the proposal, since it didn’t affect him, either way.”
What is a short sentence with indifferent?
“She responded with an indifferent shrug.”
What does indifferent mean?
Indifferent means ambivalent; unconcerned; uninterested, apathetic.

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: indifferent (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.

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