nondescript

adjective

non·​de·​script ˌnän-di-ˈskript How to pronounce nondescript (audio)
1
: belonging or appearing to belong to no particular class or kind : not easily described
… a nondescript mixture of styles in the worst possible taste.George Bernard Shaw
2
: lacking distinctive or interesting qualities : dull, drab
Their performance was disappointingly nondescript.
nondescript noun

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How Nondescript Was Formed

It is relatively easy to describe the origins of nondescript (and there's a hint in the first part of this sentence). Nondescript was formed by combining the prefix non- (meaning "not") with descriptus,the past participle of the Latin verb describere, meaning "to describe." It is no surprise, then, that when the word was adopted in the late 17th century by English speakers, it was typically applied to something (such as a genus or species) that had not yet been described. Other descriptive descendants of describere in English include describe, description, and descriptive itself, as well as the rare philosophical term descriptum ("something that is described").

Examples of nondescript in a Sentence

I work in one of the nondescript office buildings downtown. Their performance was disappointingly nondescript.
Recent Examples on the Web Yet another wrinkle is that the chemical signatures of some materials—table sugar and some plastic explosives, for instance—are so remarkably nondescript as to make distinguishing one from another impossible. IEEE Spectrum, 7 Mar. 2024 Data centers house servers, networking equipment and other apparatus, usually in unobtrusive, nondescript buildings. The Arizona Republic, 4 Mar. 2024 On a rainy Saturday afternoon in central Tokyo, 50 or so Chinese people packed into a gray, nondescript office that doubles as a bookstore. Li Yuan, New York Times, 23 Feb. 2024 On a warm evening last month, inside a cluster of nondescript office spaces south of Miami, a rehearsal studio with a giant lion’s head painted in red, green, and gold on the concrete-block wall hums with activity. Reshma B, Rolling Stone, 2 Mar. 2024 While most Angelenos have checked out for the weekend, the couple is holed up in a nondescript office building taking meetings and putting the finishing touches on their other new baby: Hilton Hilton. Tim Chan, The Hollywood Reporter, 26 Feb. 2024 Lyman, a nondescript and sprawling railway hub in eastern Ukraine, was occupied for four months by invading Russian troops, and then liberated in October 2022 during a sweeping Ukrainian counterattack. Scott Peterson, The Christian Science Monitor, 23 Feb. 2024 Open it in advance and pour it into a nondescript thermos? Judith Martin, The Mercury News, 23 Feb. 2024 Lavish travel expenses—luxury hotels, private jets—went through the N.R.A.’s public-relations firm, which then billed the organization with nondescript invoices, preventing scrutiny. Mike Spies, The New Yorker, 23 Feb. 2024

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

Word History

Etymology

non- + Latin descriptus, past participle of describere to describe

First Known Use

1789, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Time Traveler
The first known use of nondescript was in 1789

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Cite this Entry

“Nondescript.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/nondescript. Accessed 19 Mar. 2024.

Kids Definition

nondescript

adjective
non·​de·​script ˌnän-di-ˈskript How to pronounce nondescript (audio)
: belonging or appearing to belong to no particular class or kind : not easily described
nondescript noun

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