impersonal

[ im-pur-suh-nl ]

adjective

1. not personal; without reference or connection to a particular person:

   an impersonal remark.

2. having no personality; devoid of human character or traits:

   an impersonal deity.

3. lacking human emotion or warmth:

   an impersonal manner.

4. Grammar.
   1. (of a verb) having only third person singular forms and rarely if ever accompanied by an expressed subject, as Latin pluit “it is raining,” or regularly accompanied by an empty subject word, as English to rain in It is raining.
   2. (of a pronoun or pronominal reference) indefinite, as French on “one.”

noun

1. Grammar. an impersonal verb or pronoun.

impersonal

/ ɪmˈpɜːsənəl /

adjective

1. without reference to any individual person; objective

   an impersonal assessment

2. devoid of human warmth or sympathy; cold

   an impersonal manner

3. not having human characteristics

   an impersonal God

4. grammar (of a verb) having no logical subject. Usually in English the pronoun it is used in such cases as a grammatical subject, as for example in It is raining
5. grammar (of a pronoun) not denoting a person

Derived Forms

• imˈpersonally, adverb
• imˌpersonˈality, noun

Other Words From

• im·person·al·ly adverb
• super·im·person·al adjective
• super·im·person·al·ly adverb

Word History and Origins

Origin of impersonal¹

From the Late Latin word impersōnālis, dating back to 1510–20. See im- ², personal

Example Sentences

Many quickly crowded around to admire the first images of the newborn, who knew her father through a cold and impersonal screen.

From Washington Blade

I could not write an impersonal, distant story, as dictated by academic rules because as a journalist I was also part of the situation and I was suffering it firsthand.

From Washington Blade

There’s no good time for your restaurant’s oven to explode, but certainly half a year into a global pandemic that made operating a restaurant unprofitable, impersonal, and joyless has to be one of the worst times possible.

From Eater

Corriveau said many of the county’s seniors are wary about the vaccines’ safety and have been unwilling to get the shots at large, impersonal sites.

From ProPublica

Webb spent time immersing herself in the local culture to go beyond “that impersonal language of an Army war report.”

From Washington Post

I think that history is certainly made by some impersonal forces, on occasion.

From The Daily Beast

In other words, markets were impersonal, but that was good, because sometimes personal ties were cruel and oppressive.

From The Daily Beast

But over the 20th century, they evolved into something more mechanical and impersonal.

From The Daily Beast

Many found this to echo a Stepford Wife mentality of women: Women like stories and language, not impersonal, cold, manly numbers!

From The Daily Beast

Staff members can be rough and impersonal at times, particularly in high-stress areas like emergency rooms.

From The Daily Beast

Doubt, suspicion, anger clouded vision; pain routed the impersonal conception.

From Project Gutenberg

In France these reports would have been impersonal messages arriving from afar.

From Project Gutenberg

As it is an impersonal, artificial thing, a corporation cannot possibly commit a wrong or tort like a natural person.

From Project Gutenberg

He noticed them vacantly and took a curious impersonal interest in the two dim figures standing close together outside the window.

From Project Gutenberg

I defy you to see or think of them and not smile with an infinite and intimate but quite impersonal pleasure.

From Project Gutenberg

Related Words

• abstract
• detached
• indifferent
• remote