as in incomplete
lacking some necessary part
the historical record of this pharaoh's life and reign is fragmentary at best
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Recent Examples of fragmentary
The reality is that for those closest to the epicenter of any murder, healing can be fragmentary, drawn out, or downright elusive.
—
Josh Mankiewicz, NBC news, 22 Dec. 2025
Her remaining works in fragmentary progress will provide enough material for at least two posthumous albums and possibly a hologram concert by spring.
—Sophie Brookover, Vulture, 21 Nov. 2025
With words infallibly falling short, Pritam mingled realism with a fragmentary style of narration that meshes together social encounters, violent episodes, vivid metaphors, disturbing dreams, memories, intimate self-reflections, and introspection on society.
—JSTOR Daily, 30 Oct. 2025
Rather, they have been written to capture, somehow, a complicated, fragmentary and/or vanishing story of great importance to the author.
—Literary Hub, 21 Oct. 2025
See All Example Sentences for fragmentary
Josh Mankiewicz, NBC news, 22 Dec. 2025
Her remaining works in fragmentary progress will provide enough material for at least two posthumous albums and possibly a hologram concert by spring.
—Sophie Brookover, Vulture, 21 Nov. 2025
With words infallibly falling short, Pritam mingled realism with a fragmentary style of narration that meshes together social encounters, violent episodes, vivid metaphors, disturbing dreams, memories, intimate self-reflections, and introspection on society.
—JSTOR Daily, 30 Oct. 2025
Rather, they have been written to capture, somehow, a complicated, fragmentary and/or vanishing story of great importance to the author.
—Literary Hub, 21 Oct. 2025
See All Example Sentences for fragmentary
Recent Examples of Synonyms for fragmentary
incomplete
Adjective
-
Many debt collection cases involve errors, expired statutes of limitations or debts that have already been sold and resold to the point where documentation is incomplete.—
Angelica Leicht,
CBS News,
1 Apr. 2026
-
If the knowledge that defines an organization’s experience is inaccessible or lost entirely, those systems will produce incomplete, generic intelligence.—
Jason Dressel,
Fortune,
1 Apr. 2026
Cite this Entry
“Fragmentary.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/fragmentary. Accessed 4 Apr. 2026.
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