Disinterested or uninterested?
disinterested is an adjective meaning “Having no interest or stake in the outcome, and no conflicts of interest; free…”; uninterested is an adjective meaning “Not interested; indifferent, not concerned”. In written English (wordfreq, 2021 data) uninterested is about as common as disinterested.
What is the difference between disinterested and uninterested?
| disinterested | uninterested | |
|---|---|---|
| Part of speech | adjective, verb | adjective |
| Meaning | Having no interest or stake in the outcome, and no conflicts of interest; free of bias, impartial proscribedSynonym of uninterested (“not interested; not concerned; indifferent”) | Not interested; indifferent, not concerned |
| Example | none recorded | I was uninterested in the TV program, so I read a book instead |
| Pronunciation | /(ˌ)dɪsˈɪntɹɪstɪd/ /(ˌ)dɪsˈɪnt(ə)ɹɛstɪd/ /dɪsˈɪnt(ə)ɹəstəd/ | not recorded |
| In writing | about once in every 1 million words | 1.0 times per million words |
Sources: disinterested and uninterested in the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0); written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
Every current meaning of disinterested and uninterested
disinterested
- 1
Having no interest or stake in the outcome, and no conflicts of interest; free of bias, impartial
- 2
proscribedSynonym of uninterested (“not interested; not concerned; indifferent”)
uninterested
- 1
Not interested; indifferent, not concerned
I was uninterested in the TV program, so I read a book instead
Source: the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0); obsolete, archaic, dialect and rare senses left out.
Which is more common, disinterested or uninterested?
disinterested appears about once in every 1 million words; uninterested 1.0 times per million words.
disinterested about once in every 1 million wordsuninterested 1.0 times per million words
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How many people search disinterested vs uninterested?
“disinterested vs uninterested” is searched about 2,400 times a month on Google and 100 on Bing in the United States. Google counts close variants of a query together (“uninterested vs disinterested”, “disinterested or uninterested”).
Sources: Google Ads keyword data through DataForSEO and Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, the average month from September 2025 to August 2026.