indeterminate

• POS: Adjective
• HYPHEN: in=de=ter=mi=nate

CIDE DICTIONARY

indeterminate, a. [L. indeterminatus.].

 Not determinate; not certain or fixed; indefinite; not precise; as, an indeterminate number of years.  Paley.  [1913 Webster]

Indeterminate analysis (Math.), that branch of analysis which has for its object the solution of indeterminate problems. -- Indeterminate coefficients (Math.), coefficients arbitrarily assumed for convenience of calculation, or to facilitate some artifice of analysis. Their values are subsequently determined. -- Indeterminate equation (Math.), an equation in which the unknown quantities admit of an infinite number of values, or sets of values. A group of equations is indeterminate when it contains more unknown quantities than there are equations. -- Indeterminate inflorescence (Bot.), a mode of inflorescence in which the flowers all arise from axillary buds, the terminal bud going on to grow and sometimes continuing the stem indefinitely; -- called also acropetal inflorescence, botryose inflorescence, centripetal inflorescence, and indefinite inflorescence. Gray. -- Indeterminate problem (Math.), a problem which admits of an infinite number of solutions, or one in which there are fewer imposed conditions than there are unknown or required results. -- Indeterminate quantity (Math.), a quantity which has no fixed value, but which may be varied in accordance with any proposed condition. -- Indeterminate series (Math.), a series whose terms proceed by the powers of an indeterminate quantity, sometimes also with indeterminate exponents, or indeterminate coefficients.

OXFORD DICTIONARY

indeterminate, adj.
1 not fixed in extent, character, etc.
2 left doubtful; vague.
3 Math. (of a quantity) not limited to a fixed value by the value of another quantity.
4 (of a judicial sentence) such that the convicted person's conduct determines the date of release.

Idiom

indeterminate vowel the obscure vowel heard in ' a mom ent ago'; a schwa.

Derivative

indeterminacy n. indeterminately adv. indeterminateness n.

Etymology

ME f. LL indeterminatus (as IN-(1), DETERMINATE)

THESAURUS

indeterminate

abstract, accidental, adventitious, aleatoric, aleatory, amorphic, amorphous, anarchic, baggy, bland, blind, blobby, blurred, blurry, broad, casual, causeless, chance, chancy, chaotic, characterless, clear as mud, cloudy, collective, confused, contingent, dark, destinal, dicey, dim, disordered, disorderly, fatal, fatidic, featureless, fluky, foggy, formless, fortuitous, fuzzy, general, generalized, generic, hazy, hit-or-miss, iffy, ill-defined, imprecise, inaccurate, inchoate, incidental, incoherent, indecisive, indefinable, indefinite, indeterminable, indistinct, inexact, inform, kaleidoscopic, lax, loose, lumpen, misty, muddy, murky, nebulous, neutral, nondescript, nonspecific, obscure, opaque, orderless, random, risky, shadowed forth, shadowy, shapeless, stochastic, sweeping, transcendent, uncaused, uncharacterized, unclear, undefined, undestined, undetermined, undifferentiated, unexpected, unforeseeable, unforeseen, unlooked-for, unordered, unorganized, unplain, unpredictable, unspecified, vague, veiled, wide

ROGET THESAURUS

indeterminate

Chance

N chance, lot, fate, luck, good luck, mascot, speculation, venture, stake, game of chance, mere shot, random shot, blind bargain, leap in the dark, pig in a poke, fluke, potluck, faro bank, flyer, limit, uncertainty, uncertainty principle, Heisenberg's uncertainty principle, drawing lots, sortilegy, sortition, sortes, sortes Virgilianae, rouge et noir, hazard, ante, chuck-a-luck, crack-loo, craps, faro, roulette, pitch and toss, chuck, farthing, cup tossing, heads or tails cross and pile, poker-dice, wager, bet, betting, gambling, the turf, gaming house, gambling house, betting house, bucket shop, gambling joint, totalizator, totalizer, hell, betting ring, dice, dice box, gambler, gamester, man of the turf, adventurer, dicer, fortuitous, unintentional, unintended, accidental, not meant, undesigned, purposed, unpremeditated, unforeseen, uncontemplated, never thought of, random, indiscriminate, promiscuous, undirected, aimless, driftless, designless, purposeless, causeless, without purpose, possible, unforeseeable, unpredictable, chancy, risky, speculative, dicey, randomly, by chance, fortuitously, unpredictably, unforeseeably, casually, unintentionally, unwittingly, en passant, by the way, incidentally, as it may happen, at random, at a venture, at haphazard, acierta errando, dextro tempore, fearful concatenation of circumstances, fortuitous combination of circumstances, le jeu est le fils d'avarice et le pere du desespo, the happy combination of fortuitous circumstances, the fortuitous or casual concourse of atoms, God does not play dice with the universe, chance, indetermination, accident, fortune, hazard, hap, haphazard, chance medley, random, luck, raccroc, casualty, contingence, adventure, hit, fate, equal chance, lottery, tombola, toss up, turn of the table, turn of the cards, hazard of the die, chapter of accidents, fickle finger of fate, cast of the dice, throw of the dice, heads or tails, flip of a coin, wheel of Fortune, sortes, sortes Virgilianae, probability, possibility, odds, long odds, run of luck, accidentalness, main chance, odds on, favorable odds, contingency, dependence (uncertainty), situation (circumstance), statistics, theory of Probabilities, theory of Chances, bookmaking, assurance, speculation, gaming, casual, fortuitous, accidental, adventitious, causeless, incidental, contingent, uncaused, undetermined, indeterminate, random, statistical, possible, unintentional, by chance, accidentally, by accident, casually, perchance, for aught one knows, as good would have it, as bad would have it, as luck would have it, as ill-luck would have it, as chance would have it, as it may be, as it may chance, as it may turn up, as it may happen, as the case may be, grasps the skirts of happy chance, the accident of an accident, There but for the grace of God go I.

Uncertainty

N uncertainty, incertitude, doubt, doubtfulness, dubiety, dubitation, dubitancy, dubitousness, hesitation, suspense, perplexity, embarrassment, dilemma, bewilderment, timidity, vacillation, diaporesis, indetermination, vagueness, haze, fog, obscurity, ambiguity, contingency, dependence, dependency, double contingency, possibility upon a possibility, open question, onus probandi, blind bargain, pig in a poke, leap in the dark, something or other, needle in a haystack, needle in a bottle of hay, roving commission, precariousness, fallibility, uncertain, casual, random, changeable, doubtful, dubious, indecisive, unsettled, undecided, undetermined, in suspense, open to discussion, controvertible, in question, vague, indeterminate, indefinite, ambiguous, equivocal, undefined, undefinable, confused, mystic, oracular, dazed, perplexing, enigmatic, paradoxical, apocryphal, problematical, hypothetical, experimental, unpredictable, unforeseeable (unknowable), fallible, questionable, precarious, slippery, ticklish, debatable, disputable, unreliable, untrustworthy, contingent, contingent on, dependent on, subject to, dependent on circumstances, occasional, provisional, unauthentic, unauthenticated, unauthoritative, unascertained, unconfirmed, undemonstrated, untold, uncounted, in a state of uncertainty, in a cloud, in a maze, bushed, off the track, ignorant, afraid to say, out of one's reckoning, astray, adrift, at sea, at fault, at a loss, at one's wit's end, at a nonplus, puzzled, lost, abroad, d_esorient_e, distracted, distraught, pendente lite, sub spe rati, Heaven knows, who can tell? who shall decide when doctors disagr.

Equivocalness

N equivocalness, double meaning, ambiguity, double entente, double entendre, pun, paragram, calembour, quibble, equivoque, anagram, conundrum, play on words, word play, homonym, homonymy, amphiboly, amphibology, ambilogy, ambiloquy, Sphinx, Delphic oracle, equivocation, white lie, mental reservation, paltering, equivocal, ambiguous, amphibolous, homonymous, double-tongued, enigmatical, indeterminate, on the one hand, on the other hand.