nondescript

Etymology

From non- +‎ descript.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈnɒndɪskɹɪpt/
• (US) IPA^(key): /nɑndəsˈkɹɪpt/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

Adjective

nondescript (comparative more nondescript, superlative most nondescript)

1. (biology, now rare) Not described (in the academic literature); undescribed, unidentified.
   • 1851, Herman Melville, Moby Dick, chapter 6

     In thoroughfares nigh the docks, any considerable seaport will frequently offer to view the queerest looking nondescripts from foreign parts.

2. Without distinguishing qualities or characteristics; unexceptional.

   He drove a nondescript silver sedan.

   • 2017 February 23, Katie Rife, “The Girl With All The Gifts tries to put a fresh spin on overripe zombie clichés”, in The Onion AV Club‎:

     We open in a grimy, fluorescent-lit military base somewhere in rural England, where the girl from the poster, Melanie (Sennia Nanua), is the star student in a class full of children who are wheeled into school—or at least, the nondescript concrete room that serves as a school—with their arms, legs, and foreheads bound to their wheelchairs by leather straps.

Noun

nondescript (plural nondescripts)

1. An undistinguished, unexceptional person or thing.

Anagrams

• nonscripted