incomplete
Americanadjective
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not complete; lacking some part.
- Synonyms:
- fragmentary, partial, unfinished
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Football. (of a forward pass) not completed; not caught by a receiver.
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Engineering. noting a truss the panel points of which are not entirely connected so as to form a system of triangles.
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Logic, Philosophy.
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(of an expression or symbol) meaningful only in a specific context.
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(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.
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noun
adjective
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not complete or finished
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not completely developed; imperfect
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logic
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(of a formal theory) not so constructed that the addition of a non-theorem to the axioms renders it inconsistent
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(of an expression) not having a reference of its own but requiring completion by another expression
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Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of incomplete
First recorded in 1350–1400; Middle English word from Late Latin word incomplētus. See in- 3, complete
Explanation
Something incomplete is missing a part or unfinished. Incomplete things are not whole. A football pass that falls short is incomplete and so is an outfit without a shirt. A bridge to nowhere? Incomplete. Incomplete describes things that are missing something. A chess set with a lost piece is incomplete. Incomplete also means “unfinished,” like that incomplete bridge to nowhere. People often feel their lives are incomplete until they do something like have a family or make a certain amount of money. You might get an incomplete grade for a class if your teacher is going to let you make up work you missed. When something's incomplete, part of that thing is missing or undone
Vocabulary lists containing incomplete
Set, Hut! Football Vocabulary
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Words Football Fans Can Master Easily
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Florida's B.E.S.T. Common Prefixes: in-, im-, il-, ir-
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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.
Each story is incomplete, and some even contradict one another.
From Science Daily • May 21, 2026
The technology allows for much swifter identification than previous surveys, which date back to the 1970s and are incomplete.
From BBC • May 21, 2026
The following month Twitter was merged into Musk's newly formed X Corp, which was eventually fined for "incomplete" responses to the commission's repeated requests.
From Barron's • May 21, 2026
An OpenAI spokesman said the Ramp figures offer an incomplete picture of business customers because large enterprise clients don’t pay for software services through credit cards.
From The Wall Street Journal • May 13, 2026
In fact, Harriot Stanton Blatch complained to her mother that the history was incomplete.
From "Votes for Women!" by Winifred Conkling
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.
