indolence

CEFRC1

/ˈɪndəl(ə)ns/

noun

Türkçe translations

Translating…

In plain English

  1. 01

    noun

    A habit of being lazy and avoiding effort.

  2. 02

    noun

    Extra detail

    A state in which one feels no pain or is indifferent to it; a lack of any feeling.

Examples

  • I like the word "indolence". It makes my laziness seem classy.

  • Your religion promotes indolence.

At a glance

Sits at C1 on the CEFR scale

Senses
5
Parts of speech
1
Citations
5
Synonyms
5

Also pronounced

  • /ˈɪndl̩(ə)ns/

Deep Dive

noun

Extra meanings

  1. Lack of pain in a tumour.

  2. Habitual laziness or sloth.

  3. A state of repose in which neither pain nor pleasure is experienced.

More examples

In context

  • Heedless of the rights of fellows and founders' bequests, of sleepy dignities and established indolences, they re-established long-dormant lectures in the colleges.

  • [N]ow, after five weeks of doing nothing, I am an authority on the subject of indolence and glad to share my views with you.

  • He [Samuel Johnson] ſeemed to learn by intuition; for though indolence and procraſtination vvere inherent in his conſtitution, vvhenever he made an exertion he did more than any one elſe.

Synonyms

Antonyms

Quick test

Two questions on this entry. Nothing is scored.

Question 1 · Quick check

His blank caused him to fail all his classes because he never studied.

Practise this properly in the app, where the word comes back before you forget it.

Nearby

Origin

noun

Borrowed from Middle French indolence, or from its etymon Latin indolentia (“freedom from pain; insensibility”), from in- (prefix meaning ‘not’) + dolēns (“hurting, suffering; grieving, lamenting”) + -ia (suffix forming feminine abstract nouns). Dolēns is the present participle of doleō (“to hurt, suffer; to be sorry, deplore, grieve for, lament”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *delh₁- (“to divide, split”).