fragmented

[frag-muhn-tid, -men-, frag-men-]

adjective

1. reduced to fragments.

2. existing or functioning as though broken into separate parts; disorganized; disunified.

   a fragmented personality; a fragmented society.

Other Word Forms

• nonfragmented adjective
• overfragmented adjective
• unfragmented adjective

Word History and Origins

Origin of fragmented¹

First recorded in 1810–20; fragment + -ed ³

Example Sentences

It was sanctioning countries, the spokesperson said, that had "heightened" the risks by "forcing shipowners and operators to navigate an increasingly fragmented and restrictive regulatory landscape".

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Since the project’s first album in 2007, he has been unearthing abandoned remnants of music history and rewiring them for our fragmented present.

Read more on The Wall Street Journal

Not only do scientists need to find ways to protect panda habitats—and grow them through reforestation and bamboo planting—they also need to reconnect the fragmented areas wherever possible.

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“It raises the question of whether this remains the paper of record for the city of Pittsburgh, and that has only made the media ecosystem here more fragmented,” he said.

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Three governments in France have collapsed in less than a year, as they struggled to cobble together support in the fragmented National Assembly to pass a budget and narrow France’s widening deficit.

Read more on The Wall Street Journal

Related Words

• busted 
• collapsed www.thesaurus.com
• cracked 
• crumbled www.thesaurus.com
• crushed www.thesaurus.com
• damaged www.thesaurus.com
• defective 
• demolished www.thesaurus.com
• destroyed www.thesaurus.com
• fractured www.thesaurus.com
• injured www.thesaurus.com
• mangled www.thesaurus.com
• mutilated www.thesaurus.com
• ruptured www.thesaurus.com
• severed 
• shattered 
• smashed 
• splintered www.thesaurus.com

When To Use

What does fragmented mean?

Fragmented is an adjective that describes things that have been reduced or divided into fragments—pieces that have been broken off of or detached from the whole.Fragment most commonly refers to a part that has broken off rather than one that has been separated gently or intentionally, like fragments of a broken vase or a broken bone. Such things can be described as fragmented.As a verb, fragment can mean to break into pieces or disintegrate, as in The empire fragmented into multiple states after the emperor’s death. Such an empire could be described as fragmented.Fragmented is perhaps most often applied to abstract or intangible things like this, in which case it usually means disorganized or disunified in some way. For example, a fragmented society is one in which there is an extreme lack of unity among different groups. This sense of the word often implies that the thing described as fragmented is broken or unhealthy in some way.The verb fragmentize can mean the same thing as the verb sense of fragment, and the adjective fragmentized is a synonym of fragmented.The related adjective fragmentary means something different: consisting of or reduced to fragments—disconnected or incomplete, as in fragmentary evidence.Example: My attention becomes fragmented when I’m working on too many projects.