n. 1a. a variable or place marker in an expression.
b. a purely formal, uninterpreted, symbol. Sometimes a specific contrast is intended with variables for which certain identities may hold by virtue of the structural properties of a given domain; for example, in the integers modulo a prime p, the element x^p = x for all x, permitting cancellation; however, regarded as an indeterminate, x^p is a distinct entity from x. See also commuting indeterminate. 2. an expression that, if evaluated naively, has no defined value, but that may be capable of evaluation by an alternative method. For example, is an indeterminate of form 0/0, but it can be evaluated See also L'Hôpital's rule. 3. (of a set of simultaneous equations) having an infinite solution set.