apathy

apathy is defined in Webster's Unabridged Dictionary (1913) with 1 sense, and appears in Roget's Thesaurus (1911) with 40 related terms. The full text of each entry is reproduced verbatim below.

Definitions

  1. 1.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.

Source: Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913 edition (public domain, via GCIDE / Project Gutenberg).

Synonyms

Synonyms (Webster's 1913)

Source: Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913 edition (public domain, via GCIDE / Project Gutenberg).

Related questions

Sources

  • Definitions: Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913 edition (public domain, via GCIDE / Project Gutenberg).
  • Synonyms: Roget's Thesaurus, 1911 edition (public domain, via Project Gutenberg eBook #10681).
  • Canonical URL: https://worddirectanswers.com/word/apathy
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