incondite
Americanadjective
-
poorly constructed or composed
-
rough or crude
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of incondite
First recorded in 1530–40; from Latin inconditus, equivalent to in- “un-” + conditus, past participle of condere “to put in, restore” ( con- “with, together” + -di- “to put, set” + -tus past participle suffix); see in- 3, con-
Explanation
The word incondite describes something that's unpolished or in a disorganized state — like a rough draft of an essay, before you've cleaned it up and made it flow more coherently. Derived from the Latin word inconditus ("not put together"), incondite describes works that lack order, rhythm, or refinement. While often used to critique rambling speech or clumsy prose, it can also describe anything raw and unfinished — like a crude shelter made of loosely piled stones and fallen branches. The word isn't always an insult: A historian might value an incondite journal that captures the raw, unedited reality of a moment, or the early, incondite works of a renowned artist or writer.
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.
Crude they are, I grant you—a sort of unlicked, incondite things—villainously pranked in an affected array of antique modes and phrases.
From The Works of Charles and Mary Lamb — Volume 2 Elia and The Last Essays of Elia by Lamb, Charles
For this it is too polemical, diffuse, incondite.
From Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Volume 62, No. 382, October 1847 by Various
Ordericus Vitalis, a mediæval chronicler, born near Shrewsbury; was a monk of the Abbey of St. Evreul, in Normandy; wrote an ecclesiastical history of Normandy and England—a veracious document, though an incondite; d.
From The Nuttall Encyclopædia Being a Concise and Comprehensive Dictionary of General Knowledge by Nuttall, P. Austin
The question of arrangement had to be considered; I did not like to offer a mere incondite miscellany.
From The Private Papers of Henry Ryecroft by Gissing, George
The Second had what I should call an oppressively incondite mind.
From Captain Macedoine's Daughter by McFee, William
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.
