dispassionate

adjective

dis·​pas·​sion·​ate (ˌ)dis-ˈpa-sh(ə-)nət How to pronounce dispassionate (audio)
: not influenced by strong feeling
especially : not affected by personal or emotional involvement
a dispassionate critic
a dispassionate approach to an issue
dispassionately adverb
dispassionateness noun
Choose the Right Synonym for dispassionate

fair, just, equitable, impartial, unbiased, dispassionate, objective mean free from favor toward either or any side.

fair implies a proper balance of conflicting interests.

a fair decision

just implies an exact following of a standard of what is right and proper.

a just settlement of territorial claims

equitable implies a less rigorous standard than just and usually suggests equal treatment of all concerned.

the equitable distribution of the property

impartial stresses an absence of favor or prejudice.

an impartial third party

unbiased implies even more strongly an absence of all prejudice.

your unbiased opinion

dispassionate suggests freedom from the influence of strong feeling and often implies cool or even cold judgment.

a dispassionate summation of the facts

objective stresses a tendency to view events or persons as apart from oneself and one's own interest or feelings.

I can't be objective about my own child

Examples of dispassionate in a Sentence

Journalists aim to be dispassionate observers. He spoke in a dispassionate tone about the accident.
Recent Examples on the Web David Hume chimed in, two centuries later, to argue that judgments of right and wrong emanate from emotion and social conditioning, not the dispassionate application of reason. Manvir Singh, The New Yorker, 9 Sep. 2024 Her protagonist, Sadie Smith, is another dispassionate observer, but one who appears to have far more independence and agency than her predecessors. Lily Meyer, The Atlantic, 3 Sep. 2024 The resulting video showed millions of non-Latino Americans what has made Ramos a star: an ability to seem like both a dispassionate arbiter of the news and an outspoken proxy for his viewers. Stephania Taladrid, The New Yorker, 17 Aug. 2024 The Focus Features release remains the director’s most commercially successful film despite being in some ways his most experimental: Haynes directly quotes the style of Douglas Sirk for a mannered — but never dispassionate — study of a pearl-clutching Connecticut town in the 1950s. Indiewire Staff, IndieWire, 12 Aug. 2024 See all Example Sentences for dispassionate 

These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'dispassionate.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

Word History

First Known Use

1594, in the meaning defined above

Time Traveler
The first known use of dispassionate was in 1594

Dictionary Entries Near dispassionate

Cite this Entry

“Dispassionate.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/dispassionate. Accessed 31 Oct. 2024.

Kids Definition

dispassionate

adjective
dis·​pas·​sion·​ate (ˈ)dis-ˈpash-(ə-)nət How to pronounce dispassionate (audio)
: not influenced by strong feeling : calm, impartial
a dispassionate judge
dispassionately adverb

More from Merriam-Webster on dispassionate

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