incurious
Americanadjective
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not curious; not inquisitive or observant; inattentive; indifferent.
- Synonyms:
- unconcerned, apathetic, uninterested
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Archaic. lacking care or attention; careless; negligent.
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Archaic. deficient in interest or novelty.
adjective
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of incurious
From the Latin word incūriōsus, dating back to 1560–70. See in- 3, curious
Explanation
If you're incurious, you don't care very much or aren't interested. There's nothing more frustrating to a teacher than a classroom full of incurious students. The adjective incurious is useful for describing someone who really couldn't care less — who doesn't ask questions or wonder why or how something happens. Incurious people don't make good scientists, journalists, or researchers, because they lack curiosity, or the impulse to know more about something or someone. The roots of incurious are in-, "not," and the Latin curiosus, "inquiring eagerly."
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.
Throughout, he seems almost willfully incurious about why people hunt.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 30, 2026
Again and again, he witnesses painful silences in public-school classrooms full of incurious young people who do not read and do not know anything about anything.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jan. 16, 2026
He sounded exactly like an elderly person struggling to hide dementia, but unfortunately, that’s indistinguishable from his lifelong personality as an incurious person BSing his way through life.
From Salon ● Sep. 3, 2025
The food stash, the waste disposal, none of that comes into play, and the characters are wholly incurious about whatever’s going on outside their cave.
From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 6, 2024
The Orgota seemed not an unfriendly people, but incurious; they were colorless, steady, subdued.
From "The Left Hand of Darkness" by Ursula K. Le Guin
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.
