indifferentiate

I1N1D2I1F4F4E1R1E1N1T1I1A1T1E1

verb

To make less distinct; to obscure any differentiation.

Scrabble 22

Meanings

verbindifferentiate (third-person singular simple present indifferentiates, present participle indifferentiating, simple past and past participle indifferentiated)

present singular third person indifferentiates · participle present indifferentiating · participle past indifferentiated · past indifferentiated

  1. To make less distinct; to obscure any differentiation.

    To "reconcile" is not to harmonize but to indifferentiate polar differences, vivaciously balancing the oppositional tensions.

    2003, Stephen C. Foster, Hanne Bergius, Crisis and the Arts: The History of Dada - Volume 5, page 178
    3 more examples

    if there be not in nature a state exactly the opposite of the primary action, it appears to endeavor to indifferentiate itself, that is, to make its superior power available in the extinction of the change wrought in it from without (by the medicine), in the place of which it substitutes its normal state.

    1895, Samuel Hahnemann, Organon of Medicine, page 76

    Religious indifferentiation therefore stands for a third category of relation with the sacred, situated between the full identification of the sacred with the profane (as in ecstatic states) and their total separation (as in modern, disenchanted culture). Typically, folk religiosity greatly affirms the disposition to “indifferentiate”.

    2014, Steven J. Sutcliffe, Ingvild Saelid Gilhus, New Age Spirituality: Rethinking Religion

    In Britain, Gay Times discreetly became GT in March 2007, presumably all the better to indifferentiate it from the titles of other magazines, such as GQ and FHM, and thereby to consolidate continuities within the male homosocial spectrum.

    2016, David Alderson, Sex, Needs and Queer Culture: From Liberation to the Postgay

Origin

  1. Proto-Indo-European*né
  2. Proto-Indo-European*n̥-
  3. Proto-Italic*n̥-
  4. Latinin-
  5. Middle Englishin-
  6. Englishin-
  7. Proto-Indo-European*dwóh₁
  8. Proto-Indo-European*trísinflu.
  9. Proto-Indo-European*d(w)is-
  10. Proto-Italic*dis-
  11. Latindis-
  12. Proto-Indo-European*bʰer-
  13. Proto-Indo-European*bʰéreti
  14. Proto-Italic*ferō
  15. Latinferō
  16. Latindifferō
  17. Latindifferēns
  18. Latindifferentia
  19. New Latindifferentiō
  20. New Latindifferentiātus
  21. Englishdifferentiate
  22. Englishindifferentiate

From in- + differentiate.

Full word history & related roots →
Cite this entry
APA

indifferentiate. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/indifferentiate

MLA

“indifferentiate.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/indifferentiate. Accessed November 3, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “indifferentiate,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/indifferentiate.

Source: indifferentiate on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.