Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- adj. Uttered without the use of normal words or syllables; incomprehensible as speech or language: "a cry . . . that . . . sank down into an inarticulate whine” ( Jack London).
- adj. Unable to speak; speechless: inarticulate with astonishment.
- adj. Unable to speak with clarity or eloquence: an inarticulate debater.
- adj. Going unexpressed: inarticulate sorrow.
- adj. Biology Not having joints or segments.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- 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.
Wiktionary
- adj. not articulated in normal words
- adj. speechless
- adj. unable to speak with any clarity
- adj. not having joints or other articulations
GNU Webster's 1913
- adj. Not uttered with articulation or intelligible distinctness, as speech or words.
- adj. Not jointed or articulated; having no distinct body segments.
- adj. Without a hinge; -- said of an order (Inarticulata or Ecardines) of brachiopods.
- adj. Incapable of articulating.
- adj. Incapable of expressing one's ideas or feelings clearly.
WordNet 3.0
- adj. without or deprived of the use of speech or words
Examples
“Being ill-informed, uneducated, and inarticulate is not a policy.”
“Saxon gasped, standing with hands clasped in inarticulate delight.”
“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.”
“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."
“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.”
“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.”
“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.”
“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.”
“Cramer, of course, called his admission "inarticulate," a word that his attorneys have no doubt been drilling into his head all week.”
Michael B. Laskoff: White Collar War Criminals, Drop Me a Line
“A kind of inarticulate unfathomable speech, which leads us to the edge of the infinite and lets us gaze into that.”
Before the Music Dies..insightful music documentary! « Julian Ayrs & Pop Culture
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘inarticulate’.
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GRE Barrons Wordlist
A complete Barron's Wordlist for GRE preparation. Your online flashcard replacement.
abase, abash, abate, abbreviate, abdicate, aberrant, aberration, abet, abeyance, abhor, abject, abjure and 4084 more...
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Awesome Pronunciations
BRING IT ON!!!!!
!, !!, !!!, !!!!, !!!!!, peter piper, licet mihi venera..., aliquid in aere e..., SHAZAM!, dark-sided, vegan quiche...ev..., konstantinopolita... and 113 more...
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see ulater, alligator
Discombobulate-enkindled 'ulate' words.
discombobulate, undulate, perambulate, ululate, tabulate, postulate, particulate, articulate, inarticulate, populate, manipulate, capitulate and 95 more...
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List of Words to learn
Just words I'd like to know how to use :P This list is going to get very long. Feel free to add words, I love learning!
Telofy You inarticulated it well! Dec 10, 2009
uselessness Love it, AZ! Dec 10, 2009