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, in 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 our argument, she has been totally distant toward me.

Synonyms

• (far off): faraway; see also Thesaurus:distant
• (emotionally unresponsive): aloof, cold

Related terms

• distance
• equidistant

Translations

far off

• Arabic: بَعِيد‎ (ar) (baʿīd)

  Egyptian Arabic: بعيد‎ (beʿīd)

• Armenian: հեռավոր (hy) (heṙavor)
• Azerbaijani: uzaq (az), iraq
• Bashkir: алыҫ (alïθ), йыраҡ (yïraq)
• Belarusian: далёкі (daljóki)
• Bulgarian: далечен (bg) (dalečen), отдалечен (bg) (otdalečen)
• Burmese: ဝေးကွာ (my) (we:kwa)
• Catalan: distant (ca)
• Chinese:

  Cantonese: 遠, 远 (jyun⁵)

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

• Crimean Tatar: avlaq
• Czech: vzdálený (cs), daleký (cs)
• Dalmatian: luntun
• Danish: fjern (da)
• Dutch: ver (nl), in de verte
• Esperanto: fora
• Faroese: fjarur, fjarlagin, fjarlagdur, fjarstaddur
• Finnish: etäinen (fi), syrjäinen (fi), etä- (fi), kauko- (fi), kaukainen (fi)
• French: distant (fr), lointain (fr), éloigné (fr)
• Galician: distante
• Georgian: შორეული (šoreuli), დაშორებული (dašorebuli)
• German: fern (de), entfernt (de), distanziert (de), abstehend
• Greek: μακρινός (el) (makrinós)
• Hebrew: מרוחק‎ (merukhaq)
• Hindi: दूर (hi) (dūr)
• Hungarian: távoli (hu)
• Icelandic: fjarlægur (is)
• Ido: fora (io)
• Italian: distante (it)
• 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, henpi na)

• Korean: 원격 (ko) (won-gyeok), 먼 (ko) (meon)
• Kurdish: dûr (ku)
• Latin: distans, remōtus (la), longinquus
• Latvian: tāls, attāls, nomaļš
• Macedonian: далечен (dalečen), оддалечен (oddalečen)
• Maori: mamao, matara, tahiti, tawhiti, pāmamao, kōkēi, nawa
• Marathi: दूर (dūr)
• Persian: دور‎ (fa) (dur)
• Polish: daleki (pl), odległy (pl)
• Portuguese: distante (pt)
• Romanian: departe (ro)
• Romansch: lontan
• Russian: далёкий (ru) (daljókij), отдалённый (ru) (otdaljónnyj), да́льний (ru) (dálʹnij)
• Sanskrit: दूर (sa) (dūra)
• Scottish Gaelic: fad às, iomallach
• Slovak: ďaleký, vzdialený
• Sorbian:

  Lower Sorbian: daloki

• Spanish: distante (es), a distancia, huraño (es)
• Swedish: avlägsen (sv), fjärran (sv)
• Tajik: дур (tg) (dur)
• Tocharian B: akañce
• Turkish: uzak (tr)
• Ukrainian: дале́кий (dalékyj)
• Urdu: دور‎ (dūr)
• Uyghur: يىراق‎ (yiraq)
• Uzbek: yiroq (uz)
• Welsh: pell (cy), anghysbell (cy)
• Yagnobi: дур
• Zazaki: durî

emotionally unresponsive

• Bulgarian: хладен (bg) (hladen), резервиран (bg) (rezerviran)
• Catalan: distant (ca)
• Dutch: afstandelijk (nl)
• Greek: απόμακρος (el) (apómakros)
• Hungarian: távolságtartó

• 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 Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

Translations to be checked

• Indonesian: ^{(please verify)} jauh (id)

Further reading

• 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

Anagrams

• Dantist

---

Catalan

Etymology

From Latin distāns.

Pronunciation

• (Balearic, Valencian) IPA^(key): /disˈtant/
• (Central) IPA^(key): /disˈtan/

Adjective

distant (masculine and feminine plural distants)

1. distant

   Synonyms: llunyà, remot

   Antonyms: pròxim, proper

Related terms

• distància
• distar

Further reading

• “distant” in Diccionari de la llengua catalana, segona edició, Institut d’Estudis Catalans.
• “distant” in Gran Diccionari de la Llengua Catalana, Grup Enciclopèdia Catalana.
• “distant” in Diccionari normatiu valencià, Acadèmia Valenciana de la Llengua.
• “distant” in Diccionari català-valencià-balear, Antoni Maria Alcover and Francesc de Borja Moll, 1962.

---

French

Adjective

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

1. distant
2. aloof

Further reading

• “distant” in Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).

---

Latin

Verb

distant

1. third-person plural present active indicative of distō

---

Romansch

Etymology

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

Adjective

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

1. (Puter) distant, remote, faraway

Synonyms

• luntaun