indistinct

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin indistinctus (“not distinguishable, confused, obscure”),^{[2][3][4][5][6][7]} formed from in- (“not”) and distinctus (“separated, distinguished”),^[2][5][3] the past participle of distinguō (“to separate, keep separate, mark off”),^[2] the source of distinct.^[3][2] The OED compares French indistinct, recorded in 1549 in R. Estienne.^[3] Johnson derived the English word from both French and Latin.^[8]

Earliest recorded meaning

Merriam-Webster Unabridged gives 1526 as the first known use, for its first sense, not clearly outlined or separated.^[4] The OED's first quotation is from before 1530, in W. Bonde's Pylgrimage of Perfeccyon, of a perception or mental impression that is not clear.^[3] Dictionary.com dates it to 1520–30,^[7] and Etymonline, for the sense "not seen or heard clearly", to the 1580s.^[2]

Semantic evolution

The word was first used of what the senses or the mind grasp unclearly: of mental impressions, then from 1589, in Puttenham, of what is not clearly seen or heard.^[3] From 1604 it could also mean "not separate from something else".^[3][2] Wright wrote of the three persons of the Trinity as "distinguished really, and yet indistinct essentially", a sense now rare.^[6] An active sense, "not distinguishing between things", is found from 1650, in Sir T. Browne, and is now rare or obsolete.^[3][4] Johnson (1755) kept both directions: "not plainly marked; confused" and "not exactly discerning".^[8] The adverb indistinctly is older than the adjective in Etymonline's dating, from about 1400, in an obsolete sense "equally, alike, indiscriminately".^[2] G. Meredith used the adjective as a noun in 1880.^[3]

Timeline

• 1526 – not clearly outlined or separated.^[4]
• before 1530 – of a perception or mental impression, not clear.^[3]
• 1589 – not clearly seen or heard; blurred, faint.^[3][2]
• 1604 – not separate or distinguished from something else.^[3][2]
• 1650 – of judgement, undiscriminating.^[3]
• 1880 – noun, something perceived unclearly.^[3]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Not clearly seen, heard or understood; blurred, faint: The writing on the old gravestone had grown indistinct.^[9][4][3]
2. Not sharply outlined or separated from something else: The boundary between the two fields was indistinct.^[4][3][6]
3. (archaic) Not discriminating between things.^[4][3]

Noun

1. (rare) Something perceived unclearly.^[3]

Word family

• indistinctly
• indistinctness

Related words

• distinct
• distinguish

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ a b c d e f g Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
5. ^ a b Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b c Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
8. ^ a b Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
9. ^ Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins