Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • adjective Uttered without the use of normal words or syllables; incomprehensible as speech or language.
  • adjective Unable to speak; speechless.
  • adjective Unable to speak with clarity or eloquence.
  • adjective Going unexpressed.
  • adjective Biology Not having joints or segments.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • In anatomy and zoology, not articulated; having no articulation or joint; specifically, of or pertaining to the Inarticulata; lyopomatous; ecardinal.
  • Not articulate; not uttered or emitted with expressive or intelligible modulations, as sounds or speech; not distinct or with distinction of syllables.
  • Not articulating or speaking; incapable of expressing thought in speech.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • adjective Not uttered with articulation or intelligible distinctness, as speech or words.
  • adjective Not jointed or articulated; having no distinct body segments.
  • adjective Without a hinge; -- said of an order (Inarticulata or Ecardines) of brachiopods.
  • adjective rare Incapable of articulating.
  • adjective Incapable of expressing one's ideas or feelings clearly.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • adjective of speech not articulated in normal words
  • adjective speechless
  • adjective unable to speak with any clarity
  • adjective biology not having joints or other articulations

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • adjective without or deprived of the use of speech or words

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

in- +‎ articulate

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Examples

  • Being ill-informed, uneducated, and inarticulate is not a policy.

    In Eugene, Palin says she eats granola too 2010

  • Saxon gasped, standing with hands clasped in inarticulate delight.

    CHAPTER XXI 2010

  • Saxon gasped, standing with hands clasped in inarticulate delight.

    Chapter 21 1913

  • So knowledge that’s widespread but implicit and inarticulate is routinely mistaken for the kind of innovation it’s necessary to incentivize with a monopoly grant.

    Patents and Tacit Knowledge 2009

  • The statements were obviously taken out of context, and at worst he is guilty of being inarticulate, which is not a hate crime.

    "We have to be very careful. We want professors to speak with what they see as their truths." Ann Althouse 2007

  • Sure, the country has accepted that he's inarticulate, which is mind boggling in itself, but he's ripe for ridicule in so many ways.

    Ain't Redux Rogers 2006

  • To reconstruct meaningful patterns of behavior about the so-called inarticulate masses, they borrowed methods from the other social and behavioral sciences—psychology, sociology, and anthropology.

    Interpretations of American History Gerald N. Grob 1967

  • To reconstruct meaningful patterns of behavior about the so-called inarticulate masses, they borrowed methods from the other social and behavioral sciences—psychology, sociology, and anthropology.

    Interpretations of American History Gerald N. Grob 1967

  • And a habitual indulgence in the inarticulate is a sure sign of the philosopher who has not learned to think, the poet who has not learned to write, the painter who has not learned to paint, and the impression that has not learned to express itself -- all of which are compatible with an immensity of genius in the inexpressible soul.

    The Sense of Beauty Being the Outlines of Aesthetic Theory George Santayana 1907

  • Generally the rhythm runs out with a series of what might be called inarticulate drum-beats, as if an impulse existed still unsatisfied, blindly making itself felt in these insignificant pulsations; an impulse which a finer melodic sense would have satisfied by the proper antithesis in relation to the first phrase, thus leaving the melody and the rhythm to complete themselves together, as always takes place in civilized music.

    The Masters and their Music A series of illustrative programs with biographical, esthetical, and critical annotations 1874

Comments

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  • Love it, AZ!

    December 11, 2009

  • You inarticulated it well!

    December 11, 2009