ungrammatical

American  

[uhn-gruh-mat-i-kuhl] / ˌʌn grəˈmæt ɪ kəl /

adjective

1. grammatically incorrect or awkward; not conforming to the rules or principles of grammar or accepted usage.

   an ungrammatical sentence.

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ungrammatical British  

/ ˌʌnɡrəˈmætɪkəl /

adjective

1. (of a sentence) not regarded as correct by native speakers of the language

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Other Word Forms

• ungrammatically
  adverb

Etymology

Origin of ungrammatical

First recorded in 1645–55; un- ¹ + grammatical

Example Sentences

Smothers died on Dec. 26, and that same day, a new book with a clunky and ungrammatical title became available on Amazon: “Tom Smothers: Revealing 4 Untold Truth About Half of Smothers Brother.”

From New York Times • Feb. 18, 2024

Nor does it explain how his social media presence, which was always ungrammatical and silly, has become even more unhinged and incoherent.

From Salon • Sep. 27, 2023

The wording is ungrammatical and occasionally combines ideas that might otherwise have been kept apart.

From The New Yorker • Aug. 12, 2018

Me and my ilks, she wrote in a purposely ungrammatical way, get set in our ways, too, and have expectations of a certain level of knowledge, decorum and protocol.

From Washington Post • Feb. 17, 2017

For myself, I am still haunted by those vowel sounds and those uniquely ungrammatical sentences only she could dream up!

From "The Remains of the Day" by Kazuo Ishiguro