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
Derived 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 accord aims to prevent future pandemics from the disjointed responses and international disarray that surrounded the coronavirus crisis, by improving global coordination, surveillance and access to vaccines.
From Barron's • Apr. 27, 2026
The third instalment, according to Variety's Alison Herman, "feels like entertaining but disjointed fan fiction".
From BBC • Apr. 10, 2026
The Lakers looked disjointed early as LeBron James, Doncic and Reaves combined on seven-for-28 shooting in the first half.
From Los Angeles Times • Mar. 23, 2026
To evoke the fractured psyche of the characters, Morrison’s narratives are highly disjointed, switching among different points of view and time periods with only the slimmest semantic clues offered for orientation.
From The Wall Street Journal • Feb. 10, 2026
Even if every sentence in a text is crisp, lucid, and well formed, a succession of them can feel choppy, disjointed, unfocused—in a word, incoherent.
From "The Sense of Style" by Steven Pinker
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.
