Dispassionate — A Vocabulary Story
The Referee Who Never Blinked
Game night at Rohan's house was louder than a fireworks display. When his family played Snakes and Ladders, chairs got pushed back, arms got waved, and Dad once climbed onto the sofa to protest a dice roll.
That was why they needed Anaya.
Rohan's big sister was the family referee, and she was famously dispassionate. While everyone else shrieked and celebrated, Anaya sat with her clipboard, calm as a pond on a windless day.
Dispassionate means not influenced by strong feelings, so you can stay calm and fair. It also means showing no feeling or bias when judging something.
"That snake ate my counter unfairly!" Dad wailed, clutching his heart like an actor in a very serious play.
Anaya checked the board. "The counter landed on the snake. The counter slides down," she said, in a voice so dispassionate it could have read the weather forecast for the moon.
Mum tried a different tactic. She slid a chocolate biscuit towards the clipboard. "For the hardest-working referee," she whispered.
Anaya slid it straight back. "Referees cannot be bribed. Even with the good biscuits."
Rohan made it his mission to crack her. He pulled his silliest face. He did his victory wiggle right in front of her. He even rolled a six and cartwheeled into the curtains.
Anaya simply wrote something down, dispassionate as ever. "Six spaces. Please stand up."
But later, when Rohan's counter finally reached the top square, he spotted it. Just for a second, behind the clipboard, one corner of Anaya's mouth twitched upwards.
"I saw that!" Rohan shouted.
"You saw nothing," said Anaya, and turned the page.
Word Definition
dispassionate
meaning
not influenced by strong emotions and so able to be fair and calm; showing no feeling or bias when judging something
synonyms
impartial · objective · unbiased · detached · level-headed
antonyms
emotional · biased · passionate
example sentence
The judge gave a dispassionate ruling based only on the facts.