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Definition of "impersonal" []

  • Lacking personality; not being a person: an impersonal force. (adjective)
  • Showing no emotion or personality: an aloof, impersonal manner. (adjective)
  • Having no personal reference or connection: an impersonal remark. (adjective)
  • Not responsive to or expressive of human personalities: a large, impersonal corporation. (adjective)
  • Grammar Of, relating to, or being a verb that expresses the action of an unspecified subject, as in methinks, "it seems to me”; Latin pluit, "it rains”; or, with an expletive subject, it snowed. (adjective)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Use "impersonal" in a sentence
  • "That is what he calls the impersonal force of destruction that paints "destroy" (chai) on buildings without a public discussion."
  • "Each of these changes increases the gains from specialization and exchange; they also create mechanisms that underpin impersonal exchange."
  • "So neat, so clean, so impersonal is exactly the relationship of the majority of readers here to the soldiers."