Indeterminate colitis is an ill definied, preliminary and temporary descriptive term overused in clinical and morphological practice. The aim of this paper is to offer an opinion, supported by published data, about the appropriate use of this term. There is no generally accepted definition of indeterminate colitis. All current temporary definitions of this term relay on exclusionary criteria and there is no confirmatory diagnostic tests. Nevertheless the diagnosis of indeterminate colitis appears to define subgroup of patients with special phenotype of inflammatory bowel disease. A diagnosis of indeterminate colitis should be reached with description of criteria applied.