fragmented

adjective

frag·​ment·​ed ˈfrag-ˌmen-təd 

1

: broken or separated into distinct parts

Another fragmented language group is the Austroasiatic family, whose most widely spoken languages are Vietnamese and Cambodian.

—Jared Diamond

The reality seems to be that the global audience for movies has become increasingly diverse and fragmented, which runs against Hollywood's obsession with finding that magic common denominator.

—Peter Bart

2

computing : having related or associated pieces of stored data disorganized in a way that makes them more difficult to access

Fragmented files require much more work to read than contiguous files, because to do so DOS must chase down each sector, possibly moving the disk head back and forth many times. Each of these … slows the task at hand and results in additional wear and tear on your hard disk.

—Brett Glass

You probably won't notice a marked performance boost unless your hard drive is extremely fragmented.

—Doug Stanley

Synonyms

• fractured
• broken
• shattered
• smashed

Examples of fragmented in a Sentence

restoring the fragmented Roman sculpture was like putting together a jigsaw puzzle

Recent Examples on the Web

These more radical communities are heavily fragmented yet increasingly popular. —Kieran Press-Reynolds, Pitchfork, 24 Oct. 2025

The mix of private-property culture, individualism, and the country’s fragmented zoning laws creates ideal conditions for personal grudges to solidify into real estate. —Lilit Marcus, CNN Money, 24 Oct. 2025

The researchers found that those who had more fragmented sleep, time spent tossing and turning and switching positions in bed, at the start of the study had lower scores on all of the tests. —Helen Carefoot, Flow Space, 23 Oct. 2025

Her leadership helped unify a fragmented opposition and mobilize citizens across political lines. —Shane Croucher, MSNBC Newsweek, 10 Oct. 2025

Word History

First Known Use

circa 1817, in the meaning defined at sense 1