as in incomplete
lacking some necessary part
the historical record of this pharaoh's life and reign is fragmentary at best
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Recent Examples of fragmentary
Whereas Liliana’s Invincible Summer is emotional, sincere, and relatively easy to follow, Death Takes Me is cerebral, fragmentary, and disorienting.
—
Nicolás Medina Mora, The Atlantic, 13 Mar. 2025
McBurney’s bridge is fragmentary, sounding neither quite like Mussorgsky nor like an original piece.
—Jeffrey Arlo Brown, New York Times, 12 Apr. 2025
Though fugitive and fragmentary, the events in the Gospels take place on a fixed historical time line.
—Adam Gopnik, The New Yorker, 24 Mar. 2025
Whereas Liliana’s Invincible Summer is emotional, sincere, and relatively easy to follow, Death Takes Me is cerebral, fragmentary, and disorienting.
—Nicolás Medina Mora, The Atlantic, 13 Mar. 2025
See All Example Sentences for fragmentary
Nicolás Medina Mora, The Atlantic, 13 Mar. 2025
McBurney’s bridge is fragmentary, sounding neither quite like Mussorgsky nor like an original piece.
—Jeffrey Arlo Brown, New York Times, 12 Apr. 2025
Though fugitive and fragmentary, the events in the Gospels take place on a fixed historical time line.
—Adam Gopnik, The New Yorker, 24 Mar. 2025
Whereas Liliana’s Invincible Summer is emotional, sincere, and relatively easy to follow, Death Takes Me is cerebral, fragmentary, and disorienting.
—Nicolás Medina Mora, The Atlantic, 13 Mar. 2025
See All Example Sentences for fragmentary
Recent Examples of Synonyms for fragmentary
incomplete
Adjective
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Yet leaders of those two nations seem unlikely to refuse to retaliate because of incomplete evidence.—
Michael Lynch,
Forbes.com,
1 July 2025
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Maybe this was a manifestation of the same streaming bloat that has also, recently, produced maddeningly incomplete seasons of hit shows like The Last of Us and Squid Game.—
Judy Berman,
Time,
26 June 2025
Cite this Entry
“Fragmentary.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/fragmentary. Accessed 9 Jul. 2025.
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