ill-defined

adjective

: not easy to see or understand
The property's borders are ill-defined.
an ill-defined mission

Examples of ill-defined in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web
Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
While the concept of vibe coding remains ill-defined, and its merits are hotly debated within the enterprise software community, there is a broad consensus around the underlying goal of making AI agents easier to code and deploy. Maribel Lopez, Forbes.com, 18 June 2025 Worn with the wrong pieces, the look can seem messy or ill-defined. René Chávez Esparza, Glamour, 17 June 2025 The choices facing Matty and Olympia at the end of the finale seemed ill-defined, as did the stakes. Noel Murray, Vulture, 18 Apr. 2025 Instead, voters are being asked to approve Measure A, which would empower the county Board of Supervisors, by a four-fifths vote, to remove Corpus from office for any of five different broad and ill-defined reasons. Mercury News Editorial, The Mercury News, 26 Jan. 2025 Likewise, Gascón felt that Emilia’s sexuality was ill-defined. Julian Sancton, The Hollywood Reporter, 11 Jan. 2025 As for setting a more realistic timeline, Levine Cava wrote that the plan was still too ill-defined to say. Alyssa Johnson, Miami Herald, 7 Jan. 2025 That's particularly true now that the Supreme Court has scrapped a decades-old legal doctrine that gave the FDA, Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services and other health agencies the discretion to interpret vague or ill-defined laws. Tina Reed, Axios, 16 Dec. 2024 Because this doctrine is so ill-defined, a lawyer can only guess at whether this Court will apply it to the Trump administration at all, or specifically to Trump’s tariff policies. Ian Millhiser, Vox, 7 Dec. 2018

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Cite this Entry

“Ill-defined.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/ill-defined. Accessed 30 Jun. 2025.

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