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incomplete

[ in-kuhm-pleet ]
/ ˌÉȘn kəmˈplit /
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See synonyms for: incomplete / incompletely / incompleteness on Thesaurus.com
adjective
not complete; lacking some part.
Football. (of a forward pass) not completed; not caught by a receiver.
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. 5c).
Logic, Philosophy.
  1. (of an expression or symbol) meaningful only in a specific context.
  2. (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
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.
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Origin of incomplete

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

OTHER WORDS FROM incomplete

in·com·plete·ly, adverbin·com·plete·ness, nounsub·in·com·plete, adjective

Words nearby incomplete

incompact, incomparable, incompatible, incompetence, incompetent, incomplete, incomplete abortion, incomplete dominance, incomplete flower, incomplete fracture, incomplete metamorphosis
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

Words related to incomplete

deficient, fragmentary, inadequate, insufficient, lacking, partial, sketchy, abridged, broken, crude, defective, expurgated, fractional, garbled, half-done, immature, imperfect, incoherent, meager, part

How to use incomplete in a sentence

British Dictionary definitions for incomplete

incomplete
/ (ˌÉȘnkəmˈpliːt) /
adjective
not complete or finished
not completely developed; imperfect
logic
  1. (of a formal theory) not so constructed that the addition of a non-theorem to the axioms renders it inconsistent
  2. (of an expression) not having a reference of its own but requiring completion by another expression

Derived forms of incomplete

incompletely, adverbincompleteness 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
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