fragmented

adjective

frag·​ment·​ed ˈfrag-ˌmen-təd 

1

: broken or separated into distinct parts

Another fragmented language group is the Austroasiatic family, whose most widely spoken languages are Vietnamese and Cambodian.

—Jared Diamond

The reality seems to be that the global audience for movies has become increasingly diverse and fragmented, which runs against Hollywood's obsession with finding that magic common denominator.

—Peter Bart

2

computing : having related or associated pieces of stored data disorganized in a way that makes them more difficult to access

Fragmented files require much more work to read than contiguous files, because to do so DOS must chase down each sector, possibly moving the disk head back and forth many times. Each of these … slows the task at hand and results in additional wear and tear on your hard disk.

—Brett Glass

You probably won't notice a marked performance boost unless your hard drive is extremely fragmented.

—Doug Stanley

Synonyms

• broken
• busted
• fractured
• shattered
• smashed

Examples of fragmented in a Sentence

restoring the fragmented Roman sculpture was like putting together a jigsaw puzzle

Recent Examples on the Web

Overcoming Key Challenges Across diverse organizations, revenue teams repeatedly encounter three key obstacles: Data Silos Teams frequently face fragmented information across separate platforms, slowing decision making and responsiveness. —Vivek Vishal, Forbes.com, 1 May 2025

This is a big undertaking: There are dozens of fragmented sites where fireflies are active across Colorado, and more are reported by volunteers every season. —Owen Martin, The Conversation, 1 May 2025

Audiences deserve more than reruns and fragmented highlights. —Matthew Kayse, USA Today, 1 May 2025

There may be two companion stars that are interacting and sculpting the nebula, which is pinched in the middle by a fragmented ring or torus—looking like a half-eaten donut. —Alan Taylor, The Atlantic, 28 Apr. 2025

Word History

First Known Use

circa 1817, in the meaning defined at sense 1