What's the difference between
and
Enter two words to compare and contrast their definitions, origins, and synonyms to better understand how those words are related.

Indifferent vs Negative - What's the difference?

indifferent | negative |

As a verb indifferent

is .

As an adjective negative is

.

indifferent

English

Adjective

(en adjective)
  • Not caring or concerned; uninterested, apathetic.
    • He was indifferent to the proposal, since it didn't affect him, either way.
  • Mediocre, usually used negatively in modern usage.
    • The long distance and the indifferent roads made the journey impossible.
    The performance of Blue Jays has been '''indifferent'' this season.
  • * Sir Walter Scott
    • The staterooms are in indifferent order.
  • Having no preference or bias, being impartial.
    • ''I am indifferent between the two plans.
  • * Addison
    • indifferent in his choice to sleep or die
  • Not making a difference; without significance or importance.
    • Even if one appliance consumes an indifferent amount of energy when left on stand-by overnight, together they can represent 10% of the electricity demand of a household.
  • * Shakespeare
    • Dangers are to me indifferent .
  • * Jeremy Taylor
    • Everything in the world is indifferent but sin.
  • * Nathaniel Hawthorne
    • His slightest and most indifferent acts were odious in the clergyman's sight.
  • (mechanics) Being in the state of neutral equilibrium.

    • Quotations

    * , act 4, scene 1: *: Let their heads be sleekly combed their blue coats brushed and their garters of an indifferent knit

    Adverb

  • (obsolete) To some extent, in some degree (intermediate between very'' and ''not at all ); moderately, tolerably, fairly.
    • The face of the Moon appearing to me to be full of indifferent high mountains...

    Usage notes

    * Now obsolete, but very common c. 1600-1730.

    References

    * ----

    negative

    English

    Adjective

    (en adjective)
  • not positive or neutral
  • (physics) of electrical charge of an electron and related particles
  • (mathematics) of number, less than zero
  • (linguistics, logic) denying a proposition
  • damaging; undesirable; unfavourable
    • The high exchange rate will have a negative effect on our profits.
    Customers didn't like it: feedback was mostly negative .
  • pessimistic; not tending to see the bright side of things. (Often used pejoratively.)
    • I don't like to hang around him very much because he can be so negative about his petty problems.
  • Of or relating to a photographic image in which the colours of the original, and the relations of right and left, are reversed.
  • (chemistry) metalloidal; nonmetallic; contrasted with positive or basic.
    • The nitro group is negative .
  • (New Age jargon) (pejorative) bad, unwanted, disagreeable, potentially damaging, to be avoided, unpleasant, difficult, painful; (often precedes 'energy', 'feeling', 'emotion' or 'thought').
  • * 2009 , Christopher Johns, Becoming a Reflective Practitioner , John Wiley & Sons, p. 15
    • Negative' feelings can be worked through and their energy converted into positive energy... In crisis, normal patterns of self-organization fail, resulting in anxiety (' negative energy).
  • * 2011 , Joe Vitale, The Key: the missing secret for attracting anything you want , Body, Mind & Spirit, [http://books.google.com.au/books?id=hf5qEW9n_fsC&pg=PT109&dq=positive+feelings&hl=en&sa=X&ei=MkX-T8PQCo6KmQXjr4GhBQ&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q=unwanted%20feelings&f=false]
    • The threat of negative feelings may seem very real, but they are nothing more than mirages... Allow the unwanted feelings to evaporate and dissolve as the mirages that they are.
  • * 2011 , Anne Jones, Healing Negative Energies , Hachette, p. 118
    • If you have been badly affected by negative' energy a salt bath is wonderful for clearing and cleansing yourself... Salt attracts ' negative energy and will draw it away from you.

    Synonyms

    * (damaging) undesirable

    Antonyms

    * positive * (mathematics) nonnegative * (linguistics) affirmative

    Derived terms

    * negativeness * negativity * negative number * negative integer * negative polarity item * negative repetition * negative Nancy * negative verb * negative zero

    Related terms

    * negate * negation * negativism

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • refusal or withholding of assents; veto, prohibition
  • * 1843 , '', book 2, ch. XV, ''Practical — Devotional
    • Geoffrey Riddell , a great builder himself, disliked the request; could not however give it a negative .
  • (legal) a right of veto
  • * 1787 , , cited in The Constitutional Convention Of 1787: A Comprehensive Encyclopedia Of America's Founding (2005), Volume 1, page 391
    • And as to the Constitutionality of laws, that point will come before the Judges in their proper official character. In this character they have a negative on the laws.
  • * 1788 , Alexander Hamilton,
    • The qualified negative' of the President differs widely from this absolute ' negative of the British sovereign; [...]
  • * 1983 ,
    • In the convention there does not seem to have been much diversity of opinion on the subject of the propriety of giving to the president a negative on the laws.
  • (photography) an image in which dark areas represent light ones, and the converse
  • (grammar) a word that indicates negation
  • (mathematics) a negative quantity
  • (weightlifting): A rep performed with weight in which the muscle begins at maximum contraction and is slowly extended; a movement performed using only the eccentric phase of muscle movement.
  • The negative plate of a voltaic or electrolytic cell.

    • Derived terms

    * double negative * internegative

    Verb

    (negativ)
  • To veto
  • * L. T. Meade, The Palace Beautiful
    • Poppy earnestly begged to be allowed to go with Jasmine on the roof, but this the good lady negatived with horror.
  • To contradict
  • To disprove
  • * J. H. Riddell, Old Mrs Jones
    • At one time an idea got abroad that the whole tale of her fortune had been a myth; negatived the truth of this statement.

    Anagrams

    * agentive ----