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

And the European market is highly fragmented, with regulations varying from country to country. —Ryan Browne, CNBC, 12 Sep. 2025

But in the fragmented era of social media, smartphones and instant video uploads, editorial decisions by legacy media are less impactful than ever. —Preston Fore, Fortune, 11 Sep. 2025

From fragmented records to corruptible datasets and the general noise across social media, agentic systems are facing a trust and truth crisis at the most fundamental level. —Lawrence Wintermeyer, Forbes.com, 11 Sep. 2025

Without balance, lessons can feel fragmented. —Hannah Nwoko, Parents, 10 Sep. 2025

Word History

First Known Use

circa 1817, in the meaning defined at sense 1