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Indeterminate   /ˌɪndɪtˈərmɪnɪt/   Listen
adjective
Indeterminate  adj.  Not determinate; not certain or fixed; indefinite; not precise; as, an indeterminate number of years.
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.
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.






Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48








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"Indeterminate" Quotes from Famous Books



... with most men, it continues to be to the end of life, a reflex knowledge, acquired through those pleasant miscellanies, half gossip, half criticism—such as Warton's Essay on Pope, Boswell's Johnson, Mathias' Pursuits of Literature, and many scores beside of the same indeterminate class; a class, however, which do a real service to literature, by diffusing an indirect knowledge of fine writers in their most effective passages, where else, in a direct shape, it would ...
— Memorials and Other Papers • Thomas de Quincey

... consists of language rapidly vibrating or oscillating between two persons. The object of any conversation is always accusative, e.g., "Mrs. Edwards has no taste in hats." Most conversations consist of an indeterminate number of sentences, but sometimes it is difficult to tell where one sentence ends and the next begins. It is even possible for two sentences to overlap. When this occurs the conversation is known as a dialogue. A sentence may be of any length, and is concluded ...
— Mince Pie • Christopher Darlington Morley

... up suddenly, for without any further warning there had come a tiny indeterminate tapping against his panel. He held his breath and listened. It came again. Then fearlessly he drew back the bolts, slid the panel open and shut his ...
— Come Rack! Come Rope! • Robert Hugh Benson

... Jason's-crew, who landed from the Argo-Mayflower, usually bearing a name thus significant, and manifesting, even at her age, traits of character justifying the compellation. What that age precisely was, could not always be known; indeed, a lady's age is generally among indeterminate things; and it has, very properly, come to be considered ungallant, if not impertinent, to be curious upon so delicate a subject. A man has no more right to know how many years a woman has, than how many skirts she wears; ...
— Western Characters - or Types of Border Life in the Western States • J. L. McConnel

... it by natural similitude; he that lays his hand on his breast, when he expresses pity, enforces his words by a customary allusion. But theology has few topicks to which action can be appropriated; that action which is vague and indeterminate will at last settle into habit, and habitual peculiarities ...
— The Works of Samuel Johnson in Nine Volumes - Volume IV: The Adventurer; The Idler • Samuel Johnson


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