indistinct
Americanadjective
adjective
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of indistinct
From the Latin word indistinctus, dating back to 1520–30. See in- 3, distinct
Explanation
Is it hard to tell what someone is saying? Can you not see something clearly? Anything hard to make out is indistinct. Indistinct things are fuzzy, unclear, and hard to see or understand. A whisper can be indistinct. A clear, confident speaker is not indistinct. People like to say what a cloud is shaped like, but clouds are generally pretty indistinct — that's why different people will see different shapes in the same cloud. When we're writing, speaking, or drawing, we should try to be distinct, not indistinct — because we want to be understood.
Vocabulary lists containing indistinct
Holes
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It's All a Blur: Synonyms for "Unclear"
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Coraline
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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.
Yet from that painful personal source emerges something unfortunately indistinct, as though softly blanketed by the snow that sifts slowly down during this holiday drama.
From The Wall Street Journal • Dec. 11, 2025
Otherwise, Doug Liman’s 2005 action comedy is a slight distraction – fun, but indistinct.
From Salon • Feb. 2, 2024
This galaxy, AzTECC71, was first detected as an indistinct blob of dust emission by a camera on the James Clerk Maxwell Telescope in Hawaii that sees in wavelengths between far infrared and microwave.
From Science Daily • Dec. 1, 2023
The first weeks after a sperm fertilises an egg is a period of dramatic change - from a collection of indistinct cells to something that eventually becomes recognisable on a baby scan.
From BBC • Sep. 6, 2023
“For a thirteen-year-old wizard, even an indistinct Patronus is a huge achievement. You aren’t passing out anymore, are you?”
From "Harry Potter And The Prisoner Of Azkaban" by J.K. Rowling
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.
