incomplete

[ in-kuhm-pleet ]
See synonyms for: incompleteincompletelyincompleteness on Thesaurus.com

adjective
  1. not complete; lacking some part.

  2. Football. (of a forward pass) not completed; not caught by a receiver.

  1. Engineering. noting a truss the panel points of which are not entirely connected so as to form a system of triangles.: Compare complete (def. 8), redundant (def. 7c).

  2. Logic, Philosophy.

    • (of an expression or symbol) meaningful only in a specific context.

    • (of a set of axioms) such that there is at least one true proposition (able to be formulated in terms of the basic ideas of a given system) that is not deducible from the set.: Compare complete (def. 7).

noun
  1. Education. a temporary grade indicating that a student has not fulfilled one or more of the essential requirements for a course: If I don't hand in my term paper for last semester's English course, the professor is going to change my incomplete to an F.

Origin of incomplete

1
First recorded in 1350–1400; Middle English word from Late Latin word incomplētus.See in-3, complete

Other words for incomplete

Other words from incomplete

  • in·com·plete·ly, adverb
  • in·com·plete·ness, noun
  • sub·in·com·plete, adjective

Words Nearby incomplete

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

How to use incomplete in a sentence

British Dictionary definitions for incomplete

incomplete

/ (ˌɪnkəmˈpliːt) /


adjective
  1. not complete or finished

  2. not completely developed; imperfect

  1. logic

    • (of a formal theory) not so constructed that the addition of a non-theorem to the axioms renders it inconsistent

    • (of an expression) not having a reference of its own but requiring completion by another expression

Derived forms of incomplete

  • incompletely, adverb
  • incompleteness or incompletion, noun

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012