indie
adjective · noun
Simple meaning
Independent; from outside the mainstream.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
indeeSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
ˈɪndi
This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.
IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.
Definition
Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.
adjective
Independent; from outside the mainstream.
noun
countable
A person who listens to indie music and follows indie fashion.
uncountablemusic
A type of rock music, generally soft-style without screaming or aggression, mixed with synthesized music and electronic.
An independent film company not associated with an established studio
countable
A work released by an independent publisher.
Indianapolis.
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- B1 · Intermediate (estimated)
- Frequency
- Common
- Typical Use
- Varies by meaning
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: Independent; from outside the mainstream.
Used this way, indie is a reasonably familiar word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It usually sounds natural in a wide range of settings.
- Emotional tone
- Neutral
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Not strongly marked
- How common
- Moderately common
- Connotation
- No strong connotation
- Usage feel
- Neutral and straightforward
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
More ways to use indie
- “They prefer listening to indie music from local, lesser-known artists.”
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Common Patterns and Combinations
How this word naturally appears with others.
Word Family
Related forms, grouped by how they connect.
Compound terms
Established multiword terms.
A republic in southeastern Asia on an archipelago including more than 13,000 islands.
A group of islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans between Asia and Australia.
The islands in the West Indies that were formerly under British control, including the Bahamas, Saint Lucia, Antigua, Grenada, Jamaica, Barbados, and Trinidad.
The string of islands between North America and South America.
The string of islands between North America and South America.
The islands in the Lesser Antilles that are administered by France.
Related words
Connected by subject or meaning, not by word formation.
Of or relating to or characteristic of India or the East Indies or their peoples or languages or cultures.
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Words can change meaning depending on context.
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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.