fragmentary
Americanadjective
adjective
Usage
What does fragmentary mean? The adjective fragmentary means consisting of or reduced to fragments—pieces that have been broken off of or detached from something else. The fossilized remains of a dinosaur might be described as fragmentary if they exist in many different pieces, and perhaps some of the pieces are missing. The word fragment is also used to refer to a part or portion of something that is incomplete or isolated from the whole, such as a fragment of a movie or piece of music. Sometimes, fragmentary is used to describe things as disjointed, disconnected, or incomplete. This sense of the word is most commonly used to describe intangible or abstract things, as in fragmentary evidence or a fragmentary proposal. The adjective fragmental can be used to mean the same thing as fragmentary. The adjective fragmented describes things that have been broken into fragments or things that are or have been disorganized or disunified in some way, such as an empire that was once unified but is now fragmented. Example: Scholars have been able to piece together the text from the fragmentary remains of the ancient parchment.
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of fragmentary
Explanation
Anything fragmentary is made up of tiny parts or pieces, and it's usually missing some of them. Archaeologists are always discovering fragmentary remnants of ancient societies which they have to try and piece back together. Something fragmentary is in fragments, or broken bits. The Latin root is fragmentum, "a remnant," or literally, "a piece broken off." Fragmentary things have been broken or have decomposed, and there's no guarantee that all the pieces can still be found. What will your sister say when she sees the fragmentary remains of that bowl she made in art class?
Vocabulary lists containing fragmentary
Novel Study: Fahrenheit 451, Part III
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The Fighting Ground
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Parts 1 & 2 Vocabulary (Unit 1)
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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 material Patterson gives them is too fragmentary, not to say inconsistent.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 21, 2026
This year James Bailey, who has written before on Spark’s early fiction, takes a more fragmentary approach to the author in “Like a Cat Loves a Bird.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 17, 2026
“The vogue when I was writing ‘Dept. of Speculation’ was for realist doorstopper books that were self-consciously about big ideas,” explains the novelist, who published her now-classic fragmentary novel in 2014.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 28, 2026
This approach had not previously been applied to dinosaur fossils and could open up new ways to study fragmentary remains.
From Science Daily ● Apr. 15, 2026
A high and fragmentary moon came and went elusively.
From "The Fighting Ground" by Avi
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.
