impersonality
Americannoun
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impersonalities
plural
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absence of human character or of the traits associated with the human character.
He feared the impersonality of a mechanized world.
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absence or reduction of concern for individual needs or desires.
the impersonality of a very large institution.
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lack of emotional involvement.
His work reflected a certain impersonality.
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lack of a personal agent or of a known personal agent.
the impersonality of folk art.
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the quality of not being concerned with particular persons.
the impersonality and universality of his interests.
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something that is impersonal.
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of impersonality
First recorded in 1760–70; impersonal + -ity
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.
See Examples For:
The routines are both highly personal and one-size-fits-all, with an odd exchange between intimacy and impersonality; someone invites you into her day, but mostly to show you how yours might be lived better.
From New York Times ● Jan. 5, 2022
It’s hard not to take things personally, even if the process traffics in a magical impersonality.
From The New Yorker ● Oct. 8, 2018
Though he was polite, his response highlighted the crushing impersonality of bureaucracies, telling us the guards were not advised of the activities of “tenant agencies.”
From Slate ● Jun. 28, 2018
Their stories, filtered through Cusk’s coolly detached, narcotically gorgeous writing, attain a kind of exalted impersonality.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 31, 2018
He had been prepared to sacrifice his wife and his-best friend, to the impersonality of Justice.
From "The Once and Future King" by T. H. White
Mr. Ochs and Mr. Reid are great conservative impersonalities.
From Time Magazine Archive
Its small principality, flourishing when commerce and communication had gone by water, was one of the innumerable victims of progress and of the concentration of effort into huge impersonalities.
From Wild Oranges by Joseph Hergesheimer
Lincoln passes over without reference and apparently without thought the long series of impertinent impersonalities of McClellan.
From Abraham Lincoln by George Haven Putnam
"We didn't hardly say a word about you," said her mother, and now she saw what a good thing it was that she had staid and talked impersonalities with Mrs. Burton.
From The Coast of Bohemia by William Dean Howells
He would show that the novelist must therefore designate his personages as "Thomas Ex Square," "Tabitha Twenty Three," and so on with a long list of mathematical impersonalities.
From Recollections of a Varied Life by George Cary Eggleston
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Get a wordDefinitions 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.
