distant

English

Alternative forms

• distaunt, dystant, dystaunt (all obsolete)

Etymology

Inherited from Middle English distaunt, from Old French distant, from Latin distāns.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈdɪstənt/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɪstənt

Adjective

distant (comparative more distant, superlative most distant)

1. Far off (physically, logically or mentally).

   Synonyms: faraway; see also Thesaurus:distant

   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.

   • 1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter IV, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd., →OCLC:

     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.

2. Emotionally unresponsive or unwilling to express genuine feelings.

   Synonyms: aloof, cold; see also Thesaurus:aloof

   Ever since our argument, she has been totally distant toward me.

Derived terms

• dim and distant
• distantly
• distantness
• distant starlight problem
• nondistant
• overdistant
• socially distant
• subdistant
• ultradistant
• undistant

Related terms

• distal
• distance
• equidistant

Translations

far off

Afrikaans: afgeleë Arabic: بَعِيد (ar) (baʕīd) Egyptian Arabic: بعيد (beʕīd) Armenian: հեռավոր (hy) (heṙavor) Azerbaijani: uzaq (az), iraq Bashkir: алыҫ (alıś), йыраҡ (yıraq) Belarusian: далёкі (daljóki) Bulgarian: далечен (bg) (dalečen), отдалечен (bg) (otdalečen) Burmese: ဝေးကွာ (my) (we:kwa) Catalan: distant (ca), remot (ca) Cherokee: ᎢᎾ (ina) Chinese: Cantonese: 遠 / 远 (jyun5) Mandarin: 遠 / 远 (zh) (yuǎn), 遙遠 / 遥远 (zh) (yáoyuǎn) Crimean Tatar: avlaq Czech: vzdálený (cs), daleký (cs) Dalmatian: luntun Danish: fjern (da) Dutch: ver (nl), in de verte, verafgelegen (nl) Esperanto: distanca, fora Estonian: kauge 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, lonxe (gl), afastado, remoto Georgian: შორეული (šoreuli), დაშორებული (dašorebuli) German: abgelegen (de), abstehend (de), distanziert (de), entfernt (de), fern (de) Greek: μακρινός (el) (makrinós) Guaraní: mombyry Hebrew: מרוחק (merukhaq) Hindi: दूर (hi) (dūr) Hungarian: távoli (hu) Icelandic: fjarlægur (is) Ido: fora (io) Ingrian: etähäin Italian: distante (it), remoto (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) Javanese: adoh (jv) Korean: 원격 (ko) (won'gyeok), 먼 (ko) (meon) Kurdish: Northern Kurdish: dûr (ku) Latin: distans, remōtus (la), longinquus Latvian: tāls, attāls, nomaļš Livonian: kougi Lombard: lontan Macedonian: далечен (dalečen), оддалечен (oddalečen) Malayalam: അകന്ന (ml) (akanna) Maori: mamao, matara, tahiti, tawhiti, pāmamao, kōkēi, nawa Marathi: दूर (dūr) Odia: ଦୂର (or) (dura) Old Czech: daleký Oromo: fagoo Ossetian: дард (dard) Persian: دور (fa) (dur) Polish: daleki (pl), odległy (pl) Portuguese: distante (pt) Romanian: departe (ro), distant (ro) m or n Romansch: lontan Russian: далёкий (ru) (daljókij), отдалённый (ru) (otdaljónnyj), да́льний (ru) (dálʹnij) Sanskrit: दूर (sa) (dūra) Scottish Gaelic: fad às, iomallach Slovak: ďaleký, vzdialený Somali: fog Sorbian: Lower Sorbian: daloki Spanish: distante (es), a distancia, huraño (es), remoto (es) Swedish: avlägsen (sv), fjärran (sv) Tajik: дур (tg) (dur) Tocharian B: akañce Turkish: uzak (tr), ırak (tr) (obsolescing, poetic) Ukrainian: дале́кий (uk) (dalékyj) Urdu: دور (dūr) Uyghur: يىراق (yiraq) Uzbek: yiroq (uz) Venetan: lontàn Vietnamese: xa xôi (vi) Welsh: pell (cy), anghysbell (cy) Yagnobi: дур (dur) Zazaki: dûri (diq)

emotionally unresponsive

Bulgarian: хладен (bg) (hladen), резервиран (bg) (rezerviran) Catalan: distant (ca) Dutch: afstandelijk (nl) Finnish: etäinen (fi), kylmä (fi) Greek: απόμακρος (el) (apómakros) Hungarian: távolságtartó (hu) Irish: coimhthíoch Russian: отстранённый (ru) (otstranjónnyj) 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. 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, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• William Dwight Whitney, Benjamin E[li] Smith, editors (1911), “distant”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., →OCLC.
• “distant”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.

Anagrams

• Dantist

Catalan

Etymology

Learned borrowing from Latin distantem.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): (Central) [disˈtan]
• IPA^(key): (Balearic, Valencia) [disˈtant]

Adjective

distant m or f (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, 2025
• “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

Etymology

Learned borrowing from Latin distantem.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /dis.tɑ̃/

• Audio:

  (file)

Adjective

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

1. distant
2. aloof

Related terms

• distance

Descendants

• → Romanian: distant

Further reading

• “distant”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

Latin

Verb

distant

1. third-person plural present active indicative of distō

Romanian

Etymology

Borrowed from French distant, from Latin distantem.

Adjective

distant m or n (feminine singular distantă, masculine plural distanți, feminine and neuter plural distante)

1. distant, remote

Declension

Declension of distant

		singular				plural
		masculine	neuter	feminine		masculine	neuter	feminine
nominative- accusative	indefinite	distant		distantă		distanți	distante
	definite	distantul		distanta		distanții	distantele
genitive- dative	indefinite	distant		distante		distanți	distante
	definite	distantului		distantei		distanților	distantelor

Related terms

• distanță

Romansch

Etymology

Learned borrowing from Latin distantem.

Adjective

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

1. (Puter) distant, remote, faraway

   Synonym: luntaun