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

A computer's hard drive becomes more and more fragmented every time a file is saved, a file is deleted or a program is installed.

—Shea Conner

Synonyms of fragmented

• 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

Fabric development and finishing expertise converge, unlocking both creative and technical opportunities that a fragmented supply chain would not be able to achieve. —Sj Studio, Footwear News, 15 Apr. 2026

This would be a major shift from today’s fragmented landscape, dominated by security information and event management systems like Splunk, which was acquired by Cisco in 2024 for $28 billion. —Sharon Goldman, Fortune, 15 Apr. 2026

In a typical cycle, Democrats might expect to consolidate support behind a single candidate in the general election, but this year’s fragmented field has complicated that assumption. —Barnini Chakraborty, The Washington Examiner, 13 Apr. 2026

Those numbers add up fast, especially for anyone already dealing with fragmented sleep or early waking. —Allison Palmer, Kansas City Star, 13 Apr. 2026

Word History

First Known Use

circa 1817, in the meaning defined at sense 1