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

• broken
• busted
• fractured
• 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

For financial professionals navigating today’s fragmented environment, the lesson is clear: The structures through which capital flows are now as important as the assets themselves. —Alfonso Cahero, Forbes.com, 24 June 2025

The structure is often non-linear; stories are broken up in flashbacks and fragmented perspectives, mirroring the complexity of human memory, which makes the story feel more authentic, especially when exploring personal stories or trauma. —Lisa Deaderick, San Diego Union-Tribune, 21 June 2025

In order to get hold of someone’s iris scan, a hacker would have to break into each of those servers, reconnect the fragmented data, and then reverse-engineer it back into the original iris scan. —Reed Albergotti, semafor.com, 20 June 2025

Still, efforts to counter the threat remain fragmented and underfunded. —Antonio Maria Delgado, Miami Herald, 18 June 2025

Word History

First Known Use

circa 1817, in the meaning defined at sense 1