sentence fragment

noun

1. a phrase or clause written as a sentence but lacking an element, as a subject or verb, that would enable it to function as an independent sentence in normative written English.

Grammar Note

See sentence.

Word History and Origins

Origin of sentence fragment¹

First recorded in 1945–50

Example Sentences

And there was a sentence fragment he’d crossed out, following the word spirit: “Of the divine.”

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To me as a scholar of constitutional law, each sentence and sentence fragment captures the commitment made by the nation in the wake of the Civil War to govern by constitutional politics.

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For example, starting with the sentence fragment "an AI system can…," ChatGPT will predict that the next word should be "learn," "predict" or "understand."

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Gordon’s prose is relatively staccato, with lots of sentence fragments and short paragraphs, and the action moves rapidly, covering the events of just a few days.

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Time and again, he offered workers hungry for concrete answers a jumble of sentence fragments.

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