distant
Americanadjective
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far off or apart in space; not near at hand; remote or removed (often followed byfrom ).
a distant place; a town three miles distant from here.
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apart or far off in time.
distant centuries past.
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remote or far apart in any respect.
a distant relative.
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reserved or aloof; not familiar or cordial.
a distant greeting.
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arriving from or going to a distance, as a communication, journey, etc..
I have here a distant letter from Japan.
adjective
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far away or apart in space or time
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(postpositive) separated in space or time by a specified distance
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apart in relevance, association, or relationship
a distant cousin
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coming from or going to a faraway place
a distant journey
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remote in manner; aloof
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abstracted; absent
a distant look
Other Word Forms
- distantly adverb
- distantness noun
- overdistant adjective
- overdistantly adverb
- quasi-distant adjective
- quasi-distantly adverb
- ultradistant adjective
- undistant adjective
- undistantly adverb
Etymology
Origin of distant
First recorded in 1350–1400; Middle English dista(u)nt, from Anglo-French, from Latin distant-, stem of distāns “standing apart,” present participle of distāre “to stand apart,” from di- di- 2 + stāre “to stand”; stand
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
The scene stands in stark contrast to the glittering spectacle of the world-famous Sambodrome parade, which critics say has grown increasingly distant from the poor neighborhoods that sustain the roots of samba.
From Barron's
That makes us all time travelers of a sort, too, beacons of an increasingly distant era in which it was possible to be unplugged.
From Los Angeles Times
During that event, the planet's shadow took about 10 hours to cross the star's face, compared with roughly 13 hours for Earth crossing the Sun as seen from a distant vantage point.
From Science Daily
That creates a potentially nasty combination for the bond’s price because of a concept called duration—how distant most of its promised cash flows are.
Is there anyone besides distant relatives that I can name as an executor and durable power of attorney in the event I become incapacitated?
From MarketWatch
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
