indie

The word “indie” means independent of major commercial studios, labels, or publishers. In plain terms, made outside the big commercial studios or labels — used for music, films, and games alike.

“Indie” is pronounced IHN-dee (/ˈɪndi/ in IPA).

Here is “indie” used in a sentence: “The film festival focuses on indie movies made on tiny budgets.”

Depending on how it is used, “indie” can be an adjective and a noun.

The word “indie” dates back to around 1980. A shortening of independent, with the informal -ie ending, first used of music in the 1980s and later applied to film and games.

“Indie” is a fairly common word in modern English.

“Indie” has 2 distinct senses listed in this dictionary. The most common is: independent of major commercial studios, labels, or publishers.

Indie is the informal short form of independent, used mainly for creative work made outside major commercial studios, labels, or publishers — indie films, indie games, indie music. Independent is the neutral, all-purpose word, while indie carries cultural associations of small-scale, alternative style.

Both describe rock outside the commercial mainstream, and they overlap heavily. Indie is tied to independent record labels and the guitar-based style associated with them, while alternative is a broader umbrella term for non-mainstream rock in general, so many bands are described as both.

Not any more. Indie began as a label-status term, but it now also names a genre of guitar-based rock and a broader subculture, so bands on major labels are still called indie if they have the sound and ethos. Purists, however, sometimes reserve the word for genuinely independent acts.

An indie game or indie film is one made independently of major commercial publishers or studios, typically by small teams with modest budgets and full creative control. The label describes how the work is made and funded, not any single style or genre.