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Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
indeterminate
adjective
COLLOCATIONS FROM CORPUS
■ NOUN
age
▪ Dance bands, jazz and crooners of indeterminate age gave way to the new imported sound of the States - rock'n'roll.
▪ Houses built of brick and flint, of indeterminate age but generally not of this century started to appear.
▪ This is a wonderful piece of ancient machinery of indeterminate age, and consists of a crank-driven triple piston pump.
▪ Of indeterminate age, he had moist grey eyes set in a pale, thin face.
▪ Of indeterminate age, she could, Lindsey realised, be anything between thirty and fifty.
colitis
▪ Originally only four patients were classified as having definite Crohn's disease and 15 as indeterminate colitis leaving 62 with ulcerative colitis.
▪ There was no significant increased complication rate or disturbed pouch function in those with indeterminate colitis.
▪ Inevitably patients with Crohn's disease or indeterminate colitis will from time to time have restorative proctocolectomy.
▪ Seven patients with definite Crohn's disease, seven with indeterminate colitis and 52 with typical ulcerative colitis have a functioning pouch.
EXAMPLES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
▪ an indeterminate length of time
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪ And then for an indeterminate period of time he sat appraising the grazing cattle.
▪ At a village in the countryside their sleeping quarters were patrolled by rifle-toting men of indeterminate sympathies.
▪ Every general term and every abstraction is an elaboration of this, and is matched by reality with its often indeterminate borders.
▪ It was indeterminate, the weather, not cold enough to warrant wearing my overcoat, not warm enough for a jacket.
▪ Miss Logan made indeterminate gestures to the priest, then set off in pursuit of her employer.
▪ Of indeterminate age, he had moist grey eyes set in a pale, thin face.
▪ Service: being such an indeterminate quantity it is difficult to set parameters.
▪ This is in effect saying that the policy makers for the public sector were indeterminate, at that time.
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Indeterminate

Indeterminate \In`de*ter"mi*nate\, a. [L. indeterminatus.] Not determinate; not certain or fixed; indefinite; not precise; as, an indeterminate number of years.
--Paley.

Indeterminate analysis (Math.), that branch of analysis which has for its object the solution of indeterminate problems.

Indeterminate coefficients (Math.), coefficients arbitrarily assumed for convenience of calculation, or to facilitate some artifice of analysis. Their values are subsequently determined.

Indeterminate equation (Math.), an equation in which the unknown quantities admit of an infinite number of values, or sets of values. A group of equations is indeterminate when it contains more unknown quantities than there are equations.

Indeterminate inflorescence (Bot.), a mode of inflorescence in which the flowers all arise from axillary buds, the terminal bud going on to grow and sometimes continuing the stem indefinitely; -- called also acropetal inflorescence, botryose inflorescence, centripetal inflorescence, and indefinite inflorescence.
--Gray.

Indeterminate problem (Math.), a problem which admits of an infinite number of solutions, or one in which there are fewer imposed conditions than there are unknown or required results.

Indeterminate quantity (Math.), a quantity which has no fixed value, but which may be varied in accordance with any proposed condition.

Indeterminate series (Math.), a series whose terms proceed by the powers of an indeterminate quantity, sometimes also with indeterminate exponents, or indeterminate coefficients. -- In`de*ter"mi*nate*ly adv. -- In`de*ter"mi*nate*ness, n.

Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
indeterminate

late 14c., from Late Latin indeterminatus "undefined," from in- "not, opposite of" (see in- (1)) + determinatus, past participle of determinare (see determine). Related: Indeterminately.

Wiktionary
indeterminate

a. 1 Not accurately determined or determinable. 2 imprecise or vague. 3 (context biology English) Of growth: with no genetically defined end, and thus theoretically limitless. 4 (context botany English) Of inflorescences: not topped with some form of terminal bud. 5 intersex

WordNet
indeterminate
  1. adj. not precisely determined or established; not fixed or known in advance; "of indeterminate age"; "a zillion is a large indeterminate number"; "an indeterminate point of law"; "the influence of environment is indeterminate"; "an indeterminate future" [syn: undetermined] [ant: determinate]

  2. having a capacity for continuing to grow at the apex; "an indeterminate stem" [ant: determinate]

  3. of uncertain or ambiguous nature; "the equivocal (or indeterminate) objects painted by surrealists"

  4. not capable of being determined; "the indeterminate number of plant species in the jungle"

  5. not leading to a definite ending or result; "an indeterminate campaign"

Wikipedia
Indeterminate

Indeterminate may refer to:

Indeterminate (variable)

In mathematics, and particularly in formal algebra, an indeterminate is a symbol that is treated as a variable, but does not stand for anything else but itself and is used as a placeholder in objects such as polynomials and formal power series. In particular it does not designate a constant or a parameter of the problem, it is not an unknown that could be solved for, and it is not a variable designating a function argument or being summed or integrated over; it is not any type of bound variable.

Usage examples of "indeterminate".

Instead, he saw but one figure in the Location: a large, placid Bololo of indeterminate gender who stood, apparently bemused, and watched the human archetypes that had come through the barrier.

The crew consisted of a cameraperson called Randy Fox, a cropped-haired individual of indeterminate sex wearing blue jeans, Nike running shoes, white tee-shirt and black leather jacket.

Both institutions, however, the nuclear family and the prison, are equally in crisis, in the sense that the place of their effectivity is increasingly indeterminate.

An illustration of what can be done in this direction is furnished by the Elmira Reformatory, where the experiment is being made with most encouraging results, which, of course, would be still better if the indeterminate sentence were brought to its aid.

In studying Elmira, however, it must be borne in mind that the best effects cannot be obtained there, owing to the lack of the indeterminate sentence.

Polydorus, a man of indeterminate age, and seemingly no fouler than the next, went in carrying an old sword, much nicked and dented.

Between the walkway on which they stood, and a similar walkway on the other side, flowed a sluggish stream composed of reeking refuse, putrid garbage, and repulsive globs of indeterminate matter.

Together they produced a child named Hisser, of indeterminate sex, whom they tried so very desperately to love, but who was, in fact, a hideous mutant with six legs, four arms, sucker pads on its hands and feet, a mouth half as big as its misshapen head, blazing red eyes, and an adorable mass of springy blond curls that once made Shirley Temple weep bitterly with envy.

This, acting on my imagination, had supplied namelessly sinister qualities to the indeterminate face and robed, shambling form beneath it.

Cass, dressed in a drab grey high-wasted poplin gown of indeterminate style, with a small Quakerish linen collar, could not have cared less what she was wearing.

I have this zooty look, the boxy jacket and the python strides, the bright socks and the black suede shoes, the indeterminate, driven-back hair, the beady scaly face, the face of a fat snake, capable of sudden obedience, sudden revolt.

Most of its directing brains will come from the new indeterminate class of skilled workers, technical experts, airmen, scientists, architects and journalists, the people who feel at home in the radio and ferro-concrete age.

End of this Project Gutenberg Etext of Indeterminate Sentence by Charles Dudley Warner LITERARY COPYRIGHT By Charles Dudley Warner This is the first public meeting of the National Institute of Arts and Letters.

They ate with the Shona officers in the mess, and the fare was the same as that served to detainees with the addition of a stew of stringy meat of indeterminate origin and dubious freshness.

As always, the eternal icefields stretched away in all directions to an indeterminate horizon.