incomplete

[in-kuhm-pleet]

adjective

1. not complete; lacking some part.

   Synonyms: fragmentary, partial, unfinished

2. Football.,  (of a forward pass) not completed; not caught by a receiver.

3. Engineering.,  noting a truss the panel points of which are not entirely connected so as to form a system of triangles.

4. 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.

noun

1. 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.

incomplete

/ ˌɪnkəmˈpliːt /

adjective

1. not complete or finished

2. not completely developed; imperfect

3. 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

Other Word Forms

• incompletely adverb
• incompleteness noun
• subincomplete adjective

Word History and Origins

Origin of incomplete¹

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

Example Sentences

The comments come as investors await the release of economic data that had been held up by the record shutdown, with jobs and inflation the main focus, even though some are expected to be incomplete.

Read more on Barron's

There have also been concerns that incomplete data might result in the Federal Reserve standing pat on interest rates at its next policy meeting in December.

Read more on MarketWatch

The additional fragments made it possible to fully reconstruct the hymn, including sections that were previously incomplete.

Read more on Science Daily

Also, even when economists finally get delayed government data, some may be incomplete.

Read more on The Wall Street Journal

If it cannot be proven, then it is true, which means any logical system attempting to prove it is incomplete.

Read more on Science Daily

Related Words

• deficient 
• fragmentary 
• inadequate 
• insufficient 
• lacking 
• partial 
• sketchy