APATHY

Pronunciation (US):

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IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does apathy mean? 

• APATHY (noun)
  The noun APATHY has 2 senses:

1. an absence of emotion or enthusiasm

2. the trait of lacking enthusiasm for or interest in things generally

  Familiarity information: APATHY used as a noun is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• APATHY (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

An absence of emotion or enthusiasm

Classified under:

Nouns denoting feelings and emotions

Hypernyms ("apathy" is a kind of...):

feeling (the experiencing of affective and emotional states)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "apathy"):

emotionlessness; impassiveness; impassivity; indifference; phlegm; stolidity; unemotionality (apathy demonstrated by an absence of emotional reactions)

languor; lassitude; listlessness (a feeling of lack of interest or energy)

Derivation:

apathetic (marked by a lack of interest)

apathetic (showing little or no emotion or animation)

Sense 2

Meaning:

The trait of lacking enthusiasm for or interest in things generally

Classified under:

Nouns denoting attributes of people and objects

Synonyms:

apathy; indifference; numbness; spiritlessness

Hypernyms ("apathy" is a kind of...):

passiveness; passivity (the trait of remaining inactive; a lack of initiative)

Derivation:

apathetic (marked by a lack of interest)

apathetic (showing little or no emotion or animation)

 Context examples 

Neuropsychiatric Inventory (NPI) Severity of the apathy/indifference.

(NPI - Apathy/Indifference Severity, NCI Thesaurus)

I opened it with apathy; the theory which he attempts to demonstrate and the wonderful facts which he relates soon changed this feeling into enthusiasm.

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)

Neuropsychiatric Inventory (NPI) Frequency of the apathy/indifference.

(NPI - Apathy/Indifference Frequency, NCI Thesaurus)

John Messner seemed succumbing to the apathy of it all.

(Love of Life and Other Stories, by Jack London)

Being decidedly nettled herself, and longing to see him shake off the apathy that so altered him, Amy sharpened both tongue and pencil, and began.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

Signs and symptoms include anterograde and retrograde amnesia, confabulation, apathy, ataxia, and coma.

(Korsakoff Syndrome, NCI Thesaurus)

I walked a long time, and when I thought I had nearly done enough, and might conscientiously yield to the fatigue that almost overpowered me—might relax this forced action, and, sitting down on a stone I saw near, submit resistlessly to the apathy that clogged heart and limb—I heard a bell chime—a church bell.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

I thought I would find out if his apathy were real or only assumed, and tried to lead him to talk of his pets, a theme which had never failed to excite his attention.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)