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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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.
A decade later, follow-up research remains slow and incomplete.
From The Wall Street Journal • May 13, 2026
"We're trying to infer processes from incomplete clues, often with very limited data collected by missions that are extraordinarily expensive and infrequent."
From Science Daily • May 12, 2026
According to the museum, the goal is not only display but transparency: to make visible objects whose ownership history remains incomplete and to encourage potential heirs or claimants to come forward.
From Salon • May 9, 2026
The playwright recognizes the speculative and incomplete nature of history, which is always born out of the needs and assumptions of the moment it’s written.
From Los Angeles Times • May 5, 2026
On its own, it would not serve as the dictionary he needed, but it was filled with cues and gave him an incomplete road map to the minds of the Soviet cryptographers.
From "Spies: The Secret Showdown Between America and Russia" by Marc Favreau
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.
