indeterminately

Indeterminately is an adverb that describes doing or existing in a way that has no fixed limit, degree, or determinate outcome. It derives from the adjective indeterminate, itself from Latin indeterminatus, with the suffix -ly. In ordinary usage, indeterminately emphasizes lack of precise determination rather than a known length of time, and it often appears with verbs such as postpone, delay, suspend, or define to indicate that a decision, value, or schedule cannot be fixed at present.

For example, a project may be indeterminately postponed if there is no agreed resumption date, or a calculation may be indeterminately undefined when its value cannot be determined from the available data. In philosophical and mathematical contexts, indeterminately can describe situations or quantities that lack fixed value or resolution; in mathematics, the term indeterminate is used for expressions that do not evaluate to a single value, such as 0/0, though the adverb is less common in technical writings than the noun or adjective forms.

The word is formal and tends to appear in written language rather than everyday speech. It is related to indeterminacy and indeterministic discussions in philosophy, science, and mathematics, where outcomes or values resist fixed determination. While closely connected to indefinitely, indeterminately places more emphasis on the absence of a determined outcome or fixed limit rather than merely an unspecified duration.