distant

English

Alternative forms

• distaunt (obsolete)
• dystant (obsolete)
• dystaunt (obsolete)

Etymology

From Middle English, from Old French, from Latin distans, present participle of distare (“to stand apart, be separate, distant, or different”), from di-, dis- (“apart”) + stare (“to stand”).

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈdɪstənt/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

Adjective

distant (comparative more distant, superlative most distant)

1. Far off (physically, logically or mentally).
   • 1898, Winston Churchill, chapter 4, The Celebrity:

     Judge Short had gone to town, and Farrar was off for a three days' cruise up the lake. I was bitterly regretting I had not gone with him when the distant notes of a coach horn reached my ear, and I descried a four-in-hand winding its way up the inn road from the direction of Mohair.

   We heard a distant rumbling but didn't pay any more attention to it.   She was surprised to find that her fiancé was a distant relative of hers.   His distant look showed that he was not listening to me.

2. Emotionally unresponsive or unwilling to express genuine feelings.

   Ever since the trauma she has been totally distant to me.

Related terms

• distance
• equidistant

Translations

far off

• Arabic: بعيد (ar) (ba3iid)
• Armenian: հեռավոր (heṙavor)
• Bashkir: алыҫ (alïθ), йыраҡ (yïraq)
• Belarusian: далёкі (daljóki)
• Bulgarian: далечен (bg) (dalečen), отдалечен (bg) (otdalečen)
• Burmese: ဝေးကွာ (my) (we:kwa)
• Catalan: distant (ca)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 遠 (zh), 远 (zh) (yuǎn), 遙遠, 遥远 (zh) (yáoyuǎn)

• Crimean Tatar: avlaq
• Czech: vzdálený m, daleký
• Dalmatian: luntun
• Danish: fjern (da)
• Dutch: ver (nl), in de verte
• Esperanto: fora
• Finnish: etäinen, syrjäinen, etä- (fi), kauko-
• French: distant (fr), lointain (fr), éloigné (fr)
• Georgian: შორეული (šoreuli), დაშორებული (dašorebuli)
• German: fern (de), entfernt (de), distanziert, abstehend
• Greek: μακρινός (el) (makrinós)
• Hebrew: מרוחק (merukhaq)
• Hindi: दूर (hi) (dūr)

• Icelandic: fjarlægur (is) m
• Japanese: 遠い (ja) (とおい, tōi), 遠隔な (ja) (えんかくな, enkaku-na), 辺鄙な (ja) (へんぴな, hempi-na)
• Korean: 원격 (ko) (weon-gyeok), 먼 (ko) (meon)
• Latvian: tāls, attāls, nomaļš
• Marathi: दूर (dūr)
• Persian: دور (fa) (dur)
• Polish: daleki (pl), odległy (pl)
• Portuguese: distante (pt) m, f
• Romanian: departe (ro)
• Romansch: lontan
• Russian: далёкий (ru) (daljókij), отдалённый (ru) (otdaljónnyj), дальний (ru) (dál'nij)
• Scottish Gaelic: fad às, iomallach
• Slovak: ďaleký
• Spanish: distante (es), a distancia, huraño (es)
• Swedish: avlägsen (sv)
• Turkish: uzak (tr)
• Ukrainian: далекий (dalékyj)
• Urdu: دور (dūr)
• Uyghur: يىراق (yiraq)
• Uzbek: yiroq
• Welsh: pell (cy), anghysbell (cy)

emotionally unresponsive

• Catalan: distant (ca)
• Dutch: afstandelijk
• Greek: απόμακρος (el) (apómakros)

• Spanish: distante (es)
• Turkish: uzak (tr), soğuk (tr), mesafeli (tr)
• Welsh: oeraidd (cy)

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables, removing any numbers. Numbers do not necessarily match those in definitions. See instructions at Help:How to check translations.

Translations to be checked

• Ido: fora (io)
• Indonesian: jauh (id)

External links

• distant in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913
• distant in The Century Dictionary, The Century Co., New York, 1911
• distant at OneLook Dictionary Search

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Catalan

Adjective

distant m, f (masculine and feminine plural distants)

1. distant

Related terms

• distància
• distar

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French

Adjective

distant m (feminine distante, masculine plural distants, feminine plural distantes)

1. distant
2. aloof

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Latin

Verb

distant

1. third-person plural present active indicative of distō

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Romansch

Etymology

From Latin distāns, present participle of distō, distāre (“stand apart, be distant”).

Adjective

distant m (feminine distanta, masculine plural distants, feminine plural distantas)

1. (Puter) distant, remote, faraway

Synonyms

• luntaun