"nondescript" meaning in English

See nondescript in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Adjective

IPA: /ˈnɒndɪskɹɪpt/ [UK], /nɑndəsˈkɹɪpt/ [US] Audio: en-us-nondescript.ogg Forms: more nondescript [comparative], most nondescript [superlative]
Etymology: From non- + descript. Etymology templates: {{prefix|en|non|descript}} non- + descript Head templates: {{en-adj}} nondescript (comparative more nondescript, superlative most nondescript)
  1. (biology, now rare) Not described (in the academic literature). Tags: archaic Categories (topical): Biology Synonyms: undescribed, unidentified Translations (biology: not described): tunnistamaton (Finnish)
    Sense id: en-nondescript-en-adj-NmFA71~x Categories (other): English entries with incorrect language header, English terms prefixed with non-, Entries with translation boxes, Pages with 1 entry, Pages with entries, Terms with Bulgarian translations, Terms with Finnish translations, Terms with French translations, Terms with Spanish translations Disambiguation of English entries with incorrect language header: 31 23 19 17 10 Disambiguation of English terms prefixed with non-: 33 23 15 13 15 Disambiguation of Entries with translation boxes: 42 23 17 14 4 Disambiguation of Pages with 1 entry: 38 24 17 16 5 Disambiguation of Pages with entries: 43 23 15 15 3 Disambiguation of Terms with Bulgarian translations: 42 18 11 11 17 Disambiguation of Terms with Finnish translations: 44 18 11 12 15 Disambiguation of Terms with French translations: 48 21 15 11 5 Disambiguation of Terms with Spanish translations: 54 19 13 11 3 Topics: biology, natural-sciences Disambiguation of 'biology: not described': 92 8
  2. Without distinguishing qualities or characteristics. Synonyms: undescript [nonstandard], unexceptional Translations (without distinguishing qualities): неопределен (neopredelen) (Bulgarian), mitäänsanomaton (Finnish), banal (French), quelconque (French), indescriptivo [masculine] (Spanish)
    Sense id: en-nondescript-en-adj-T9hHirS5 Disambiguation of 'without distinguishing qualities': 12 88
The following are not (yet) sense-disambiguated
Synonyms: non-descript

Noun

IPA: /ˈnɒndɪskɹɪpt/ [UK], /nɑndəsˈkɹɪpt/ [US] Audio: en-us-nondescript.ogg Forms: nondescripts [plural]
Etymology: From non- + descript. Etymology templates: {{prefix|en|non|descript}} non- + descript Head templates: {{en-noun}} nondescript (plural nondescripts)
  1. (chiefly biology) A species or other type of creature that has not been previously described or identified. Categories (topical): Biology
    Sense id: en-nondescript-en-noun-R2CSu70L Topics: biology, natural-sciences
  2. An undistinguished, unexceptional person or thing.
    Sense id: en-nondescript-en-noun-EVRvg~xz
  3. (UK) An unmarked police car. Tags: UK
    Sense id: en-nondescript-en-noun-Mj62MWlk Categories (other): British English
The following are not (yet) sense-disambiguated
Synonyms: non-descript

Inflected forms

Alternative forms

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      "form": "more nondescript",
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        "(biology, now rare) Not described (in the academic literature)."
      ],
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          "word": "undescribed"
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          "word": "unidentified"
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      "tags": [
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      "translations": [
        {
          "_dis1": "92 8",
          "code": "fi",
          "lang": "Finnish",
          "sense": "biology: not described",
          "word": "tunnistamaton"
        }
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          "text": "He drove a nondescript silver sedan.",
          "type": "example"
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          "ref": "1895, Robert Louis Stevenson, “The Second Cabin”, in The Amateur Emigrant:",
          "text": "There was, besides, a Scots mason, known from his favourite dish as \"Irish Stew,\" three or four nondescript Scots, a fine young Irishman, O'Reilly, and a pair of young men who deserve a special word of condemnation.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1950 April, R. A. H. Weight, “They Passed by My Window”, in Railway Magazine, pages 258-259:",
          "text": "In 1919, demobilisation specials from Purfleet, Essex, to the North, usually made up of nondescript, almost paintless or grey stock which had seen long wartime service, chalked with slogans, were worked through by way of Bromley and the North London line […].",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2017 February 23, Katie Rife, “The Girl With All The Gifts tries to put a fresh spin on overripe zombie clichés”, in The Onion AV Club:",
          "text": "We open in a grimy, fluorescent-lit military base somewhere in rural England, where the girl from the poster, Melanie (Sennia Nanua), is the star student in a class full of children who are wheeled into school—or at least, the nondescript concrete room that serves as a school—with their arms, legs, and foreheads bound to their wheelchairs by leather straps.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2021 December 29, Stephen Roberts, “Stories and facts behind railway plaques: Chippenham (1841)”, in RAIL, number 947, page 57:",
          "text": "The plaque, of light-blue hue (a tone favoured by the Wiltshire market town's civic society), can be found on a nondescript structure just outside the station.",
          "type": "quote"
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          "tags": [
            "nonstandard"
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          "word": "undescript"
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          "word": "unexceptional"
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          "_dis1": "12 88",
          "code": "bg",
          "lang": "Bulgarian",
          "roman": "neopredelen",
          "sense": "without distinguishing qualities",
          "word": "неопределен"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "12 88",
          "code": "fi",
          "lang": "Finnish",
          "sense": "without distinguishing qualities",
          "word": "mitäänsanomaton"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "12 88",
          "code": "fr",
          "lang": "French",
          "sense": "without distinguishing qualities",
          "word": "banal"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "12 88",
          "code": "fr",
          "lang": "French",
          "sense": "without distinguishing qualities",
          "word": "quelconque"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "12 88",
          "code": "es",
          "lang": "Spanish",
          "sense": "without distinguishing qualities",
          "tags": [
            "masculine"
          ],
          "word": "indescriptivo"
        }
      ]
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    {
      "_dis1": "0 0 0 0 0",
      "word": "non-descript"
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          "ref": "1791, Thomas Paine, Rights of Man:",
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          "ref": "1851 November 14, Herman Melville, chapter 6, in Moby-Dick; or, The Whale, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers; London: Richard Bentley, →OCLC:",
          "text": "In thoroughfares nigh the docks, any considerable seaport will frequently offer to view the queerest looking nondescripts from foreign parts.",
          "type": "quote"
        }
      ],
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        "An undistinguished, unexceptional person or thing."
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          "ref": "1970, Peter Laurie, Scotland Yard: a study of the Metropolitan Police, page 118:",
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          "type": "quote"
        }
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        "An unmarked police car."
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      ],
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        "(UK) An unmarked police car."
      ],
      "tags": [
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      ]
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      "_dis1": "0 0 0 0 0",
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          "type": "quote"
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        {
          "ref": "1950 April, R. A. H. Weight, “They Passed by My Window”, in Railway Magazine, pages 258-259:",
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          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
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          "text": "We open in a grimy, fluorescent-lit military base somewhere in rural England, where the girl from the poster, Melanie (Sennia Nanua), is the star student in a class full of children who are wheeled into school—or at least, the nondescript concrete room that serves as a school—with their arms, legs, and foreheads bound to their wheelchairs by leather straps.",
          "type": "quote"
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          "word": "undescript"
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  "translations": [
    {
      "code": "fi",
      "lang": "Finnish",
      "sense": "biology: not described",
      "word": "tunnistamaton"
    },
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      "code": "bg",
      "lang": "Bulgarian",
      "roman": "neopredelen",
      "sense": "without distinguishing qualities",
      "word": "неопределен"
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      "code": "fi",
      "lang": "Finnish",
      "sense": "without distinguishing qualities",
      "word": "mitäänsanomaton"
    },
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      "code": "fr",
      "lang": "French",
      "sense": "without distinguishing qualities",
      "word": "banal"
    },
    {
      "code": "fr",
      "lang": "French",
      "sense": "without distinguishing qualities",
      "word": "quelconque"
    },
    {
      "code": "es",
      "lang": "Spanish",
      "sense": "without distinguishing qualities",
      "tags": [
        "masculine"
      ],
      "word": "indescriptivo"
    }
  ],
  "word": "nondescript"
}

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          "ref": "1791, Thomas Paine, Rights of Man:",
          "text": "Imagination has given figure and character to centaurs, satyrs, and down to all the fairy tribe; but titles baffle even the powers of fancy, and are a chimerical non-descript.",
          "type": "quote"
        }
      ],
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        "A species or other type of creature that has not been previously described or identified."
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          "biology",
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          "species",
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        "(chiefly biology) A species or other type of creature that has not been previously described or identified."
      ],
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        "biology",
        "natural-sciences"
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          "ref": "1851 November 14, Herman Melville, chapter 6, in Moby-Dick; or, The Whale, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers; London: Richard Bentley, →OCLC:",
          "text": "In thoroughfares nigh the docks, any considerable seaport will frequently offer to view the queerest looking nondescripts from foreign parts.",
          "type": "quote"
        }
      ],
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        "An undistinguished, unexceptional person or thing."
      ]
    },
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        "British English",
        "English terms with quotations",
        "Quotation templates to be cleaned"
      ],
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        {
          "ref": "1970, Peter Laurie, Scotland Yard: a study of the Metropolitan Police, page 118:",
          "text": "By a nice British compromise, the enforcement car — visible just then as a white spot on the television screen — has nothing externally to show its police affiliation, but unlike the CID's nondescripts, carries two large policemen in uniform.",
          "type": "quote"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "An unmarked police car."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "unmarked",
          "unmarked"
        ],
        [
          "police car",
          "police car"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(UK) An unmarked police car."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "UK"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "ipa": "/ˈnɒndɪskɹɪpt/",
      "tags": [
        "UK"
      ]
    },
    {
      "ipa": "/nɑndəsˈkɹɪpt/",
      "tags": [
        "US"
      ]
    },
    {
      "audio": "en-us-nondescript.ogg",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/b/b7/En-us-nondescript.ogg/En-us-nondescript.ogg.mp3",
      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b7/En-us-nondescript.ogg"
    }
  ],
  "synonyms": [
    {
      "word": "non-descript"
    }
  ],
  "word": "nondescript"
}

Download raw JSONL data for nondescript meaning in English (7.4kB)


This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-11-06 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-10-02 using wiktextract (fbeafe8 and 7f03c9b). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.