ill-formed

[ il-fawrmd ]
See synonyms for ill-formed on Thesaurus.com
adjective
  1. badly formed.

  2. Linguistics. not conforming to the rules of a given language; ungrammatical (opposed to well-formed).

Origin of ill-formed

1
First recorded in 1665–75

Other words from ill-formed

  • ill-form·ed·ness [il-fawr-mid-nis, -fawrmd-], /ˈɪlˈfɔr mɪd nɪs, -ˈfɔrmd-/, noun

Words Nearby ill-formed

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024

How to use ill-formed in a sentence

  • If this were a squat, ill-formed proletarian race obviously predestined to subjection, one might understand.