Adjacent Words

Apathy definitions

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Webster's 1828 Dictionary

AP'ATHY, n. [Gr. passion.]
Want of feeling; an utter privation of passion, or insensibility to pain; applied either to the body or the mind. As applied to the mind, it is stoicism, a calmness of mind incapable of being ruffled by pleasure, pain or passion. In the first ages of the church, the christians adopted the term to express a contempt of earthly concerns.
Quietism is apathy disguised under the appearance of devotion.

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)

n
1: an absence of emotion or enthusiasm
2: the trait of lacking enthusiasm for or interest in things generally [syn: apathy, indifference, numbness, spiritlessness]

Merriam Webster's

noun Etymology: Greek apatheia, from apath?s without feeling, from a- + pathos emotion — more at pathos Date: 1594 1. lack of feeling or emotion ; impassiveness 2. lack of interest or concern ; indifference

Oxford Reference Dictionary

n. (often foll. by towards) lack of interest or feeling; indifference. Etymology: F apathie f. L apathia f. Gk apatheia f. apathes without feeling f. a- not + pathos suffering

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Apathy Ap"a*thy, n.; pl. Apathies. [L. apathia, Gr. ?; 'a priv. + ?, fr. ?, ?, to suffer: cf. F. apathie. See Pathos.] Want of feeling; privation of passion, emotion, or excitement; dispassion; -- applied either to the body or the mind. As applied to the mind, it is a calmness, indolence, or state of indifference, incapable of being ruffled or roused to active interest or exertion by pleasure, pain, or passion. ``The apathy of despair.'' --Macaulay. A certain apathy or sluggishness in his nature which led him . . . to leave events to take their own course. --Prescott. According to the Stoics, apathy meant the extinction of the passions by the ascendency of reason. --Fleming. Note: In the first ages of the church, the Christians adopted the term to express a contempt of earthly concerns. Syn: Insensibility; unfeelingness; indifference; unconcern; stoicism; supineness; sluggishness.

Collin's Cobuild Dictionary

You can use apathy to talk about someone's state of mind if you are criticizing them because they do not seem to be interested in or enthusiastic about anything. [disapproval]

Soule's Dictionary of English Synonyms

n. Insensibility, impassibility, dispassion, dulness, torpor, hebetude, sluggishness, coldness, phlegm, indifference, unconcern, unfeelingness, stoicism, want of feeling, pococurantism.

Moby Thesaurus

Laodiceanism, abeyance, abstraction, abulia, accidia, acedia, alienation, aloofness, anxiety, anxiety equivalent, anxiety state, ataraxia, ataraxy, benumbedness, blah, blahs, boredom, callousness, calmness, carelessness, casualness, catalepsy, catatonia, catatonic stupor, cave of Trophonius, cave of despair, coldness, comatoseness, compulsion, deadliness, deathliness, dejection, depression, despair, desperateness, desperation, despondency, detachment, disconsolateness, disinterest, disinterestedness, dispassion, dispassionateness, disregard, disregardfulness, dormancy, drowsiness, dullness, easygoingness, elation, emotionalism, enervation, ennui, entropy, euphoria, fatigue, folie du doute, forlornness, halfheartedness, hardness, heartlessness, heaviness, hebetude, heedlessness, hopelessness, hypochondria, hysteria, hysterics, impassiveness, impassivity, inanimation, inappetence, inattention, incuriosity, incuriousness, indifference, indifferentism, indifferentness, indiscrimination, indolence, inertia, inertness, inexcitability, insensibility, insensitivity, insouciance, intellectual inertia, jadedness, lack of affect, lack of appetite, lack of interest, lackadaisicalness, languidness, languishment, languor, languorousness, lassitude, latency, lenitude, lentor, lethargicalness, lethargy, lifelessness, listlessness, lotus-eating, lukewarmness, mania, melancholia, mental distress, mindlessness, negligence, no exit, no way, no way out, nonchalance, numbness, obduracy, obsession, oscitancy, passiveness, passivity, pathological indecisiveness, phlegm, phlegmaticalness, phlegmaticness, plucklessness, pococurantism, preoccupation, psychalgia, psychomotor disturbance, recklessness, regardlessness, resignation, resignedness, satedness, sleepiness, sloth, slothfulness, slowness, sluggishness, somnolence, sopor, soporifousness, spiritlessness, spunklessness, stagnancy, stagnation, stasis, stoicism, stolidity, stupefaction, stupor, supineness, suspense, tic, torpidity, torpidness, torpitude, torpor, twitching, unanxiousness, unawareness, unconcern, uninquisitiveness, uninterestedness, unmindfulness, unresponsiveness, unsolicitousness, vegetation, vis inertiae, weariness, withdrawal, withdrawnness, world-weariness