disjointed
Americanadjective
-
having the joints or connections separated.
a disjointed fowl.
-
a disjointed discourse.
- Synonyms:
- unorganized, chaotic, confused, rambling
-
Entomology. disjunct.
adjective
-
having no coherence; disconnected
-
separated at the joint
-
dislocated
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of disjointed
Explanation
Disjointed isn’t when you can bend your thumb all the way backwards — that’s double-jointed. Disjointed means "unorganized" or "disconnected." Disjointed is an adjective that describes something as disconnected, illogical, or just messed up. A disjointed argument is an argument that doesn’t make a lot of sense. The same can be said for a disjointed sentence or a disjointed speech. In a medical sense, disjointed means "dislocated," or “separated at the joint.” When someone gets injured, they may end up with a disjointed shoulder or a disjointed hip.
Vocabulary lists containing disjointed
100 SAT Words Beginning with "D"
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The Things They Carried
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Between Shades of Gray
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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.
“The HSI task force has been disjointed and disorganized,” Teirab wrote.
From Salon ● Aug. 15, 2026
Many species once abundant across the continent are now isolated to increasingly small and disjointed patches, each impact compounding and leaving them more vulnerable to the next.
From BBC ● Aug. 8, 2026
What we saw instead was a wildly disjointed and confusing mashup of displays that lent nothing to our knowledge of America’s rise to become that admired “shining city upon a hill.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 4, 2026
Since then, several buildings and public artworks have been added, but LANLT’s Kjer described the site as a “hodgepodge of concrete, worn-out planting areas and grass ... with a disjointed flow and limited way-finding.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 29, 2026
And now everything comes in quick, disjointed images, like reality is violently strobing around me.
From "Dry" by Neal Shusterman and Jarrod Shusterman
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.
