impersonal
not personal; without reference or connection to a particular person: an impersonal remark.
having no personality; devoid of human character or traits: an impersonal deity.
lacking human emotion or warmth: an impersonal manner.
Grammar.
(of a verb) having only third person singular forms and rarely if ever accompanied by an expressed subject, as Latin pluit “it is raining,” or regularly accompanied by an empty subject word, as English to rain in It is raining.
(of a pronoun or pronominal reference) indefinite, as French on “one.”
Grammar. an impersonal verb or pronoun.
Origin of impersonal
1Other words from impersonal
- im·per·son·al·ly, adverb
- su·per·im·per·son·al, adjective
- su·per·im·per·son·al·ly, adverb
Words Nearby impersonal
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024
How to use impersonal in a sentence
I think that history is certainly made by some impersonal forces, on occasion.
In other words, markets were impersonal, but that was good, because sometimes personal ties were cruel and oppressive.
But over the 20th century, they evolved into something more mechanical and impersonal.
Many found this to echo a Stepford Wife mentality of women: Women like stories and language, not impersonal, cold, manly numbers!
Staff members can be rough and impersonal at times, particularly in high-stress areas like emergency rooms.
Doubt, suspicion, anger clouded vision; pain routed the impersonal conception.
The Wave | Algernon BlackwoodIn France these reports would have been impersonal messages arriving from afar.
Gallipoli Diary, Volume I | Ian HamiltonAs it is an impersonal, artificial thing, a corporation cannot possibly commit a wrong or tort like a natural person.
Putnam's Handy Law Book for the Layman | Albert Sidney BollesHe noticed them vacantly and took a curious impersonal interest in the two dim figures standing close together outside the window.
Winston of the Prairie | Harold BindlossI defy you to see or think of them and not smile with an infinite and intimate but quite impersonal pleasure.
The Pocket R.L.S. | Robert Louis Stevenson
British Dictionary definitions for impersonal
/ (ɪmˈpɜːsənəl) /
without reference to any individual person; objective: an impersonal assessment
devoid of human warmth or sympathy; cold: an impersonal manner
not having human characteristics: an impersonal God
grammar (of a verb) having no logical subject. Usually in English the pronoun it is used in such cases as a grammatical subject, as for example in It is raining
grammar (of a pronoun) not denoting a person
Derived forms of impersonal
- impersonality, noun
- impersonally, adverb
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
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