Advertisement - Continue reading below

Definition of "inchoate" []

  • In an initial or early stage; incipient. (adjective)
  • Imperfectly formed or developed: a vague, inchoate idea. (adjective)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Use "inchoate" in a sentence
  • "Yesterday's term was inchoate, which is defined as:"
  • "You recognize it as some kind of inchoate shame which makes you rageful, or you're not able to put the sequence of things together: this happened to me, and I feel bad about it, and the way I'm feeling has a name, and other people feel that way, and I'm okay for feeling it."
  • "Brooks says there's an "inchoate longing for change," and the Oxford English Dictionary tells us that "inchoate" means "just begun and so not fully formed or developed; rudimentary.""