Adjacent Words

Impersonal definitions

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Webster's 1828 Dictionary

IMPER'SONAL, a. [L. impersonalis; in and personalis, from persona. See Person.]
In grammar, an impersonal verb is one which is not employed with the first and second persons, I and thou or you, we and ye, for nominatives, and which has no variation of ending to express them, but is used only with the termination of the third person singular, with it for a nominative in English,and without a nominative in Latin; as, it rains, it becomes us to be modest; L. toedet; libet; pugnatur.

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)

adj
1: not relating to or responsive to individual persons; "an impersonal corporation"; "an impersonal remark" [ant: personal]
2: having no personal preference; "impersonal criticism"; "a neutral observer" [syn: impersonal, neutral]

Merriam Webster's

adjective Etymology: Middle English, from Late Latin impersonalis, from Latin in- + Late Latin personalis personal Date: 15th century 1. a. denoting the verbal action of an unspecified agent and hence used with no expressed subject (as methinks) or with a merely formal subject (as rained in it rained) b. of a pronoun indefinite 2. a. having no personal reference or connection <impersonal criticism> b. not engaging the human personality or emotions <the machine as compared with the hand tool is an impersonal agency — John Dewey> c. not existing as a person ; not having human qualities or characteristics • impersonality noun • impersonally adverb

Oxford Reference Dictionary

adj. 1 having no personality. 2 having no personal feeling or reference. 3 Gram. a (of a verb) used only with a formal subject (usu. it) and expressing an action not attributable to a definite subject (e.g. it is snowing). b (of a pronoun) = INDEFINITE. Derivatives: impersonality n. impersonally adv. Etymology: LL impersonalis (as IN-(1), PERSONAL)

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Impersonal Im*per"son*al, n. That which wants personality; specifically (Gram.), an impersonal verb.

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Impersonal Im*per"son*al, a. [L. impersonalis; pref. im- not + personalis personal: cf. F. impersonnel. See Personal.] Not personal; not representing a person; not having personality. An almighty but impersonal power, called Fate. --Sir J. Stephen. Impersonal verb (Gram.), a verb used with an indeterminate subject, commonly, in English, with the impersonal pronoun it; as, it rains; it snows; methinks (it seems to me). Many verbs which are not strictly impersonal are often used impersonally; as, it goes well with him.

Collin's Cobuild Dictionary

1. If you describe a place, organization, or activity as impersonal, you mean that it is not very friendly and makes you feel unimportant because it involves or is used by a large number of people. Before then many children were cared for in large impersonal orphanages... ADJ [disapproval] 2. If you describe someone's behaviour as impersonal, you mean that they do not show any emotion about the person they are dealing with. We must be as impersonal as a surgeon with his knife... ADJ • impersonally The doctor treated Ted gently but impersonally. ADV 3. An impersonal room or statistic does not give any information about the character of the person to whom it belongs or relates. The rest of the room was neat and impersonal... ADJ

Moby Thesaurus

Olympian, abstract, aloof, backward, bashful, blank, candid, chilled, chilly, cold, cold-blooded, colorless, constrained, conventionalized, cool, detached, discreet, disinterested, dispassionate, distant, emotionless, equal, equitable, evenhanded, expressionless, external, extraneous, extraorganismal, extrinsic, fair, forbidding, foreign, formal, formalist, formalistic, formulary, frigid, frosty, guarded, icy, impartial, impassive, inaccessible, indifferent, introverted, just, legalistic, lofty, matter-of-fact, mechanical, modest, neutral, nominal, nonsubjective, objective, offish, outlying, outside, outward, pedantic, poker-faced, prim, remote, removed, repressed, reserved, restrained, reticent, retiring, rigid, selfless, shrinking, standoff, standoffish, stiff, strait-laced, stuffy, stylized, subdued, superficial, suppressed, surface, unaffable, unapproachable, unbiased, uncolored, uncongenial, undazzled, undemonstrative, unexpansive, unfriendly, ungenial, unimpassioned, uninfluenced, unjaundiced, unprejudiced, unprepossessed, unselfish, unswayed, withdrawn, wooden