amorphous
Americanadjective
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lacking definite form; having no specific shape; formless.
the amorphous clouds.
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of no particular kind or character; indeterminate; having no pattern or structure; unorganized.
an amorphous style; an amorphous personality.
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Petrography, Mineralogy. occurring in a mass, as without stratification or crystalline structure.
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Chemistry. not crystalline.
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Biology. having structural components that are not clearly differentiated, as the nuclear material in certain bacteria.
adjective
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lacking a definite shape; formless
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of no recognizable character or type
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(of chemicals, rocks, etc) not having a crystalline structure
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Not made of crystals. Glass, amber, and plastics are amorphous substances.
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Lacking definite form or shape.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Etymology
Origin of amorphous
First recorded in 1725–35, amorphous is from the Greek word ámorphos shapeless. See a- 6, -morph, -ous
Explanation
Amorphous means without a clearly defined form, like the moon's amorphous reflection in a lake. Figuratively, something amorphous lacks focus, be it a work of art, a political movement, or even someone's life plans. The Greek roots of this word are clear: morphē means "form," and a- means "lacking or without." When creative works or ideas are described as amorphous, it means they suffer from a lack of organization. An amorphous object lacks a well-defined outline or structure, like amorphous jellyfish drifting on the surface of the ocean. And scientifically, this adjective simply describes something without a crystalline form, like an amorphous metal or amorphous ice.
Vocabulary lists containing amorphous
100 SAT Words Beginning with "A"
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300 Most Difficult "SAT" Words
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The Great Gatsby
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
There might be a fascinating play here, but the amorphous scenes that Hyland provides lack a dramatic through line.
From Los Angeles Times • Feb. 14, 2026
Some industry insiders have asked whether the OpenClaw-Moltbook phenomenon is evidence of “artificial general intelligence,” an amorphous concept described throughout the history of AI development as a moment when machines achieve humanlike intelligence.
From The Wall Street Journal • Feb. 4, 2026
“Another more amorphous change is the culture…the new Boeing sounds a lot more like what Airbus would call humble, and that is no bad thing.”
From Barron's • Jan. 28, 2026
Instead, it becomes an amorphous solid, a form of metal without the ordered structure of a crystal.
From Science Daily • Dec. 11, 2025
Yes, the feelings themselves were intangible, amorphous, but the cause of the feelings was a matter of chemistry, biology.
From "Every Day" by David Levithan
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
