inarticulate

1 of 2

adjective

in·​ar·​tic·​u·​late ˌi-(ˌ)när-ˈti-kyə-lət How to pronounce inarticulate (audio)
1
: incapable of giving coherent, clear, or effective expression to one's ideas or feelings
2
a(1)
: incapable of speech especially under stress of emotion : mute
(2)
: incapable of being expressed by speech
inarticulate fear
(3)
: not voiced or expressed : unspoken
society functions on many inarticulate premises
b
of a sound : uttered or formed without the definite articulations of intelligible speech
3
[New Latin inarticulatus, from Latin in- + New Latin articulatus articulate] : relating to, characteristic of, or being an inarticulate or its shell
inarticulately adverb
inarticulateness noun

inarticulate

2 of 2

noun

: any of a class (Inarticulata) of brachiopods lacking a hinge connecting the two shell valves

Examples of inarticulate in a Sentence

Adjective He's smart, but somewhat inarticulate. I was almost inarticulate with rage.
Recent Examples on the Web
Adjective
The Zen movies that don’t announce themselves as such — and sometimes don’t even intend themselves as such — can often be blockbusters, resonating across a mass audience that senses the dharma at a deep and inarticulate level. Ty Burr, Washington Post, 16 Feb. 2024 There’s beauty in the inanimate objects’ inarticulate longing. Bilge Ebiri, Vulture, 20 Jan. 2024 Domingo locates an inarticulate longing beneath Mister’s brokenness that makes his eventual atonement both credible and moving. David Rooney, The Hollywood Reporter, 19 Dec. 2023 Face-to-face with horrendous history, the fictional journalist and the film itself become somewhat understandably inarticulate and fumbling. Sheri Linden, The Hollywood Reporter, 19 Sep. 2023 Too annoying and inarticulate. Judy Gold, CNN, 12 Nov. 2021 After all, every generation of music fans finds a like-minded peer group whose youthful, fleeting, inarticulate passion for one particular band provides a soft, stoned landing place in a hard world. Dennis Perkins, EW.com, 13 July 2022 To see Amazon come out in support of Black Lives Matter, the same Amazon that orchestrated a campaign around people working in its processing centers and against a black organizer, calling him inarticulate. Sidney Fussell, Wired, 19 June 2020 When television children were still speaking in zingers, these guys were defiantly inarticulate. Jason Zinoman, New York Times, 4 Oct. 2022
Noun
Our role is not to answer but to question, and to let our questioning run headlong, reckless, into the inarticulate. Stephen Marche, The Atlantic, 15 Sep. 2022 To understand the gap between how Nitram saw himself versus how others perceived the inarticulate, angry young man, Kurzel assigned Jones tasks: film himself with a video camera, doodle in a diary. New York Times, 1 Apr. 2022 In Heaney, the inarticulate, the mumblers, the provincial found a powerful well source of description to draw from. Washington Post, 27 Jan. 2022

These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'inarticulate.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

Word History

Etymology

Adjective

Late Latin inarticulatus, from Latin in- + articulatus, past participle of articulare to utter distinctly — more at articulate

First Known Use

Adjective

1603, in the meaning defined at sense 2b

Noun

1952, in the meaning defined above

Time Traveler
The first known use of inarticulate was in 1603

Dictionary Entries Near inarticulate

Cite this Entry

“Inarticulate.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/inarticulate. Accessed 19 Mar. 2024.

Kids Definition

inarticulate

adjective
in·​ar·​tic·​u·​late
ˌin-(ˌ)är-ˈtik-yə-lət
1
a
: not understandable as spoken words
inarticulate cries
inarticulate murmurs
b
: not able to speak
c
: not able to be expressed
inarticulate longings
2
: not able to give clear expression to ideas or feelings
an inarticulate speaker
inarticulately adverb
inarticulateness noun

More from Merriam-Webster on inarticulate

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