Definition
Indeterminate means uncertain, not fixed, or not particularly designated. In law, the term operates across two distinct contexts:
1. CONTRACTS AND PROPERTY (historical core meaning): A thing is indeterminate when it has not been specifically identified or designated. A sale of one hundred bushels of wheat, without specifying which wheat, is a sale of an indeterminate object. Title or risk in such a transaction cannot fully vest until the subject matter is particularized — that is, until the indeterminate becomes determinate by selection, segregation, or delivery.
2. CRIMINAL SENTENCING (modern dominant usage): An indeterminate sentence is one in which the court fixes a range — a minimum and maximum term — rather than a specific period of incarceration. The actual release date is left to the discretion of a parole board or similar authority, which evaluates the prisoner's rehabilitation, conduct, and readiness for reintegration. An indeterminate sentence of five to fifteen years, for example, binds neither the prisoner nor the state to a fixed endpoint within that range.
Common Language
Modern common usage (Wiktionary): Not accurately determined or determinable; imprecise or vague; not definitively or precisely determined.
Historical common usage (Webster's 1913): Not determinate; not certain or fixed; indefinite; not precise; as, an indeterminate number of years.
The common-language definitions and the legal definitions align closely at the level of general meaning — uncertainty, lack of fixity. The gap lies in application: in law, indeterminate is a technical term of art that triggers specific doctrines. In contract law, it governs when title passes and risk transfers. In criminal law, it defines an entire sentencing philosophy that differs fundamentally from determinate sentencing. A researcher who encounters "indeterminate" in a legal source needs to identify which context is operative — the word carries different doctrinal weight in each.
Common Confusion
INDETERMINATE VS. INDEFINITE SENTENCING
These terms are sometimes used interchangeably in older sources, but they are not identical. An indefinite sentence historically referred to a sentence with no fixed maximum — an open-ended commitment. An indeterminate sentence has both a minimum and a maximum, with the actual release date unresolved within that range. Modern statutes and scholarship generally use indeterminate in the bounded-range sense, but nineteenth- and early twentieth-century sources may conflate the two. Verify the specific statutory scheme before treating the terms as equivalent.
Why It Matters in Research
The term appears in two largely separate bodies of doctrine, and a researcher must track which is operative:
IN CONTRACT AND PROPERTY SOURCES: The indeterminate/determinate distinction is foundational to rules on when title passes in a sale of goods, when risk of loss shifts, and when a creditor can attach or levy. Historical sources — including Bouvier's and both editions of Black's — address indeterminate exclusively in this commercial sense. A researcher working in pre-twentieth-century contracts, sales, or commercial law sources should expect this to be the operative meaning. The wheat example used by every shelf source is the canonical illustration.
IN SENTENCING SOURCES: The indeterminate sentencing framework emerged as the dominant American penal philosophy from roughly the late nineteenth century through the 1970s, grounded in the rehabilitative ideal. Parole boards held substantial discretion over actual release dates. Beginning in the 1970s and accelerating through the 1980s and 1990s, many jurisdictions shifted to determinate or presumptive sentencing, abolishing or limiting parole and fixing sentences at the time of conviction. This shift is one of the most consequential developments in twentieth-century American criminal law.
A researcher working in criminal law must determine the sentencing era and jurisdiction. Statutes, case law, and secondary sources from before the reform wave will reflect indeterminate assumptions; post-reform sources reflect determinate frameworks. The two systems produce different procedural rules, different constitutional questions, and different vocabularies. Mixing sources from different eras without recognizing the underlying framework shift is a significant research trap.
In corpus research: the criminal sentencing meaning will dominate in twentieth-century and later materials; the contracts meaning will dominate in nineteenth-century materials. Both meanings may appear in the same historical volume without cross-reference or disambiguation.
Historical Dictionary Support
All four shelf sources define indeterminate identically and exclusively in the commercial/property sense: something uncertain or not particularly designated, with the wheat bushel as the uniform illustration. Every source traces the definition to Bouvier's Institutes (1 Bouv. Inst. no. 950), indicating the formulation was treated as settled and canonical. There is no variation or divergence among the sources on this point.
Notably, none of the shelf sources addresses indeterminate sentencing. This is not an oversight — the entry predates the full development of the indeterminate sentencing system as a major doctrinal category. Black's first edition (1891) and second edition (1910) were published as indeterminate sentencing was only beginning to take institutional form in American corrections. Researchers relying solely on these historical dictionaries will find no guidance on the criminal law meaning that now dominates the term's legal usage.
The absence is itself informative: it marks approximately where in legal history the sentencing meaning emerged, and confirms that any indeterminate sentencing doctrine must be traced through statutory materials, penological treatises, and case law rather than through the standard historical dictionaries.
Jurisdictional Note
Indeterminate sentencing remains operative in some states and has been partially retained or restored in others, but many jurisdictions have moved to determinate, presumptive, or mandatory minimum frameworks that significantly constrain or eliminate parole board discretion. The federal system abolished parole for offenses committed after November 1, 1987, under the Sentencing Reform Act of 1984, making federal sentencing largely determinate. State practice varies substantially and has continued to evolve.
Encyclopedia Cross-Reference
State Sentencing Frameworks (Determinate vs. Indeterminate) — The Law Mind Criminal Law Encyclopedia