Meanings
comparative more impersonal · superlative most impersonal
- Lacking warmth or emotion; cold.
She sounded impersonal as she gave her report of the Nazi death camps.
1 more example
And now it appeared that there was a mysterious Queen clothed by rumour with dread and wonderful attributes, and commonly known by the impersonal, but, to my mind, rather awesome title of She.
1886 October – 1887 January, H[enry] Rider Haggard, She: A History of Adventure, London: Longmans, Green, and Co., published 1887, →OCLC - grammarNot having a subject, or having a third person pronoun without an antecedent.
The verb “rain” is impersonal in sentences like “It’s raining.”
Synonyms: monopersonal, unipersonal, pleonastic
Synonyms & antonyms
adjectiveNot having a subject, or having a third person pronoun without an antecedent.
More synonyms by meaning
adjectivehaving no personal preference
Synonym sets from Open English WordNet, CC BY 4.0.
Origin
- Latinimpersōnālis
- Frenchimpersonnel
- Englishimpersonal
From French impersonnel, from Latin impersōnālis, from im- (“not”) + persōnālis (“personal”), equivalent to im- + personal.
Full word history & related roots →Translations
Afrikaans onpersoonlik
- onpersoonliklacking warmth or emotion
Bulgarian безли́чен
- безли́чен (bezlíčen)grammar
Catalan impersonal, impersonal
- impersonalnot representing a person
- impersonallacking warmth or emotion
- impersonalgrammar
Chinese Mandarin 無人稱 /无人称
- 無人稱 /无人称 (wúrénchēng)grammar
Czech neosobní, neosobní
- neosobnínot representing a person
- neosobnílacking warmth or emotion
Dutch onpersoonlijk, onpersoonlijk
- onpersoonlijknot representing a person
- onpersoonlijklacking warmth or emotion
Estonian umbisikuline
- umbisikulinegrammar
Finnish persoonaton, persoonaton
- persoonatonnot representing a person
- persoonatonlacking warmth or emotion
- persoonatongrammar
French impersonnel
- impersonnelgrammar
German unpersönlich, unpersönlich
- unpersönlichnot representing a person
- unpersönlichlacking warmth or emotion
- unpersönlichgrammar
Greek απρόσωπος, απρόσωπος
- απρόσωπος (aprósopos)not representing a person
- απρόσωπος (aprósopos)lacking warmth or emotion
- απρόσωπος (aprósopos)grammar
Hungarian személytelen, személytelen
- személytelennot representing a person
- személytelenlacking warmth or emotion
- közömböslacking warmth or emotion
- érzéketlenlacking warmth or emotion
- rideglacking warmth or emotion
- személytelengrammar
Latin impersonalis
- impersonalisgrammar
Polish bezosobowy, bezduszny
- bezosobowynot representing a person
- bezdusznylacking warmth or emotion
- bezosobowylacking warmth or emotion
- bezosobowygrammar
Portuguese impessoal
- impessoallacking warmth or emotion
Russian безли́чный, обезли́ченный
- безли́чный (bezlíčnyj)not representing a person
- обезли́ченный (obezlíčennyj)not representing a person
- отчуждённый (otčuždjónnyj)lacking warmth or emotion
- безли́кий (bezlíkij)lacking warmth or emotion
- безли́чный (bezlíčnyj)grammar
Spanish impersonal, impersonal
- impersonalnot representing a person
- impersonallacking warmth or emotion
- impersonalgrammar
Swedish opersonlig, opersonlig
- opersonlignot representing a person
- opersonliglacking warmth or emotion
- opersonliggrammar
Ukrainian безли́кий, безособо́вий
- безли́кий (bezlýkyj)lacking warmth or emotion
- безособо́вий (bezosobóvyj)grammar
Rhymes & wordplay
Anagrams
Cite this entry
impersonal. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/impersonal
“impersonal.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/impersonal. Accessed November 3, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “impersonal,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/impersonal.
Source: impersonal on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.