These words refer to places considerably removed in space or time. Distant suggests that space is a barrier to easy contact: a country very distant from our own. Remote takes up the suggestion of mere space as a barrier, but adds to it overtones implying isolation that results from being out of the way or off the beaten track: the remote interior that is harder to reach than many more distant places.

Inaccessible almost exclusively emphasizes barriers other than sheer space itself: a short cut through the mountain that is extremely inaccessible in winter. Far-away suggests a distant place that might be exotic or picturesque: far-away islands where people live on fish and fruit, and bask all day in the sun.

Distant and remote also can refer to separation by time: ruins that once were palaces in the distant past; a vanished culture remote from ours. In these uses, remote is an intensification of the lack of contact suggested by distant . In reference to future possibilities, distant suggests sheer time as the barrier, remote other added difficulties that make for an unlikely prospect.

• Real disarmament is a distant possibility; The chances for negotiation are remote .

In reference to attitudes, distant suggests a wandering mind: a distant look in his eye. Far-away suggests absorption in possibly pleasant fantasies of another kind of life: a far-away hint of wanderlust in his expression. Remote , however, stresses coldness of manner: the woman who held herself rigid and remote in a chill silence.