The Collaborative International Dictionary
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.
Wiktionary
adv. In an indeterminate manner.
Usage examples of "indeterminately".
Indeed at each level in biological systems, as in chemical systems, the morphic units in isolation behave more indeterminately than they do when they are part of a higher-level morphic unit.
At its bottom, indeterminately deep, a smoky movement could be seen, and a distant whining hearda storm noise that seemed minute beneath the vast, rumbling sound ceiling of Death-by-Winter's snoring.
Angie had looked out earlier, and she knew what there was to see, and could imagine how it appeared now with darkness falling: The surrealistic, slightly concave plain of steel and glass stretching away to right and left and up and down, vanishing indeterminately behind wreaths of darkening fog before the end of it became visible in any direction.
Only vaguely did Apollo remember the wayonly vaguely, for the god could not recall, in all of his own indeterminately long life, any time when he had needed sanctuary.
The edges appear frayed, the strands composing them growing thinner and thinner as they stretched farther from the center, until they indeterminately raveled out into invisibility.
I wrote it down and we disconnected, and I was still looking at it indeterminately at nine o’clock when I closed the shop.
The statement too seemed to hang indeterminately in the air between them.
The indeterminately coloured paint, what little there was of it, was peeling and blistered, the splintered wooden floor was blackened and filthy and the rough-cut softwood bar bore the imprint of the passage of time.