What's the difference between indifference and supercilious?

Indifference


Definition:

  • (n.) The quality or state of being indifferent, or not making a difference; want of sufficient importance to constitute a difference; absence of weight; insignificance.
  • (n.) Passableness; mediocrity.
  • (n.) Impartiality; freedom from prejudice, prepossession, or bias.
  • (n.) Absence of anxiety or interest in respect to what is presented to the mind; unconcernedness; as, entire indifference to all that occurs.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) I did not - do not - quite understand how some are able to contemplate his anti-semitism with indifference.
  • (2) Strains showing occasional antagonism at a particular proportion of concentrations of the test combination, were found to only be indifferent when the mean index of the fractional inhibition concentration of all checkerboard combinations was calculated.
  • (3) Whether out of fear, indifference or a sense of impotence, the general population has learned to turn away, like commuters speeding by on the freeways to the suburbs, unseeingly passing over the squalor.
  • (4) "The disrespect embodied in these apparent mass violations of the law is part of a larger pattern of seeming indifference to the constitution that is deeply troubling to millions of Americans in both political parties," he said.
  • (5) The report paints a picture characterised too often by international indifference, even over the collection and distribution of the raw data on migrant deaths.
  • (6) Never had I heard anything about what I saw documented so unsparingly in Evan’s photographs: families sleeping in the streets, their clothes in shreds, straw hats torn and unprotecting of the sun, guajiros looking for work on the doorsteps of Havana’s indifferent mansions.
  • (7) We know this system doesn't work – and yet we prop it up with ignorance and indifference.
  • (8) The Tip Deflection Test involved securing the lead at 45 degrees at the indifferent electrode and applying a force to deflect the tip 5 mm.
  • (9) A sine wave current stimulus, applied between electrodes placed about one ear and an indifferent electrode, produced a cyclical sway predominantly in the coronal plane.
  • (10) I watched about 90 shows in three weeks, with an unfavourable ratio of good to bad to indifferent.
  • (11) The ghastliness of this American shock jock, who, though still obscure to most Britons, is said to be the third most popular radio host in the States, perhaps explains why news of his continued exclusion from the UK was greeted last week with utter indifference.
  • (12) In 20 patients a water-soluble contrast medium (Urovison for infusion 30%, 500 ml) was injected after addition of indifferent infusion solutions, or the contrast medium was mixed with the ascitic fluid remaining in the cavity after abdominal puncture of patients with ascites.
  • (13) When the initial-link reinforcement rate was lower than the terminal-link rate, preference converged toward indifference.
  • (14) In this study was tested the prediction that approach-oriented wrestlers should perform better than indifferent- and avoidance-oriented ones.
  • (15) On a macro level, a party that is already thoroughly militarized and corporatized – and largely indifferent to Main Street whenever it poses a conflict with Wall Street – offers little alternative to the other party that already celebrates that.
  • (16) Even if Honda manage to improve their woeful power unit and McLaren make improvements to their indifferent car, it is difficult to see the team running better than mid-table next term.
  • (17) He says it is not for him to say what Russia should do but “it can not be indifferent to the destiny of such a big partner as Ukraine”.
  • (18) What to say to the children who went to a pop concert and left to find their waiting parents blown apart by the hate and callous indifference in the foyer?
  • (19) The best results were observed in hebephrenic forms and depressive syndroms during the illness; in these indications, carpipramine exerts a clear psychomotor stimulating activity which is useful in decreasing indifference, apathy and ideomotor slowness.
  • (20) In general, the combination of quinolone antibiotics with other drugs tested against staphylococci, enterococci, and anaerobic species has shown indifference.

Supercilious


Definition:

  • (a.) Lofty with pride; haughty; dictatorial; overbearing; arrogant; as, a supercilious officer; asupercilious air; supercilious behavior.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) Comment is perfectly legitimate, but the sneering, supercilious, specious and dismissive contributions masquerading as ‘commentary’ belittle the claims of a ‘quality’ paper.” Before attempting to assess the validity of the reader’s analysis – broadly shared by some other readers – I think his email reflects one or two other interesting aspects of the demographics of the Guardian’s readership and the left.
  • (2) After former tabloid editor Piers Morgan was fired from CNN , there were warnings that the US media was now poisoned to British accents and supposed superciliousness.
  • (3) But when I saw the advert it occurred to me that it, and that supercilious exclamation mark in particular, could in fact give people an excuse to express their homophobia.
  • (4) A decade later when I met him again in a hotel suite in London, it was more Mona Lisa than Cheshire Cat - coolly supercilious, ultimately indecipherable.
  • (5) It was often veiled, supercilious and sinister, but on screen he made us an offer we couldn't refuse.
  • (6) So the relationship that begins at the Milford railway station (it's two metaphorical stops down the line from Borchester – The Archers began five years after Brief Encounter) with a piece of grit in Laura's eye and Alec's unquestionably clean handkerchief will lead to afternoons together, lunch and a visit to the cinema (their silly movie is called Flames of Passion), a country drive, and an awkward trip to a friend's flat (the supercilious Valentine Dyall).
  • (7) Recently, I have caught myself saying something in everyday conversation that a few years ago would have elicited a cry of “supercilious wanker” from me if I’d heard someone else say it.
  • (8) Brexit, said Putin, was a result of irritation over Britain subsidising weaker economies, and “the British government’s self-assuredness and supercilious attitude to life-changing decisions in their own country and Europe in general”.
  • (9) I was made to regret it almost immediately when I was loudly condemned as a “supercilious prick”.
  • (10) Shimell's character is very supercilious and unsympathetic – he has a Basil Fawlty-esque fit of temper in a restaurant – and it is not easy to tell if this is deliberate, or if Kiarostami thinks Shimell elegant and cerebral.
  • (11) To others, though, he is at his supercilious worst here; floating the idea that, having withdrawn from the union, Scotland, in its beneficence, can turn round and preach to the English about how to deal with the nasty Tories.
  • (12) Their particular brand of upper class snobbery is now so anachronistic it’s simply amusing: in an obituary this week of Deborah , the writer pointed to a list of the late Duchess of Devonshire’s dislikes, which included but was not limited to “the bits of paper that fall out of magazines; female weather forecasters; the words ‘environment’, ‘conservation’ and ‘leisure’; supercilious assistants at makeup counters; dietary fads; skimmed milk; girls with slouching shoulders and Tony Blair.” And then there are the Nazis.
  • (13) You know when you're out walking and you see a party of riders, and they give you a slightly supercilious look?
  • (14) President Barack Obama is often criticised for superciliousness and arrogance.
  • (15) Now usually it would be advisable to ignore such news and treat in the same way as someone telling you that the sun is "hot and yellow", Piers Morgan is "smug and annoying", Katie Hopkins is "snobbish and supercilious" and the Mill is "tired and emotional" — it's just the way of life.