inchoate

inchoate
adjective
Synonyms of inchoate
: being only partly in existence or operation : incipient
especially : imperfectly formed or formulated : formless, incoherent
misty, inchoate suspicions that all is not well with the nation
—J. M. Perry
inchoately adverb
inchoateness noun


Did you know?
When should you use inchoate?

Inchoate comes from inchoare, which means "to start work on" in Latin but translates literally as "to hitch up" (inchoare combines the prefix in- with the Latin noun cohum, which refers to the strap that secures a plow beam to a draft animal's yoke). The concept of this initial step toward the larger task of plowing a field explains how inchoate came to describe something (such as a plan or idea) in its early, not fully formed, stages of development.

Synonyms
aborning
budding
inceptive
incipient
nascent
Examples of inchoate in a Sentence
inchoate feelings of affection for a man whom she had, up till now, thought of as only a friend
Recent Examples on the Web
These examples are automatically compiled from online sources to illustrate current usage. Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.
In life, Nichols had been diminished to an abstraction, a target for the inchoate rage of men who were, at least nominally, part of his own community.
—Jelani Cobb, The New Yorker, 31 Jan. 2023
Williams and his admirers were certainly right to point out the inchoate and woolly nature of much of the 'survival of the species' talk which was in the air in the mid-20th century.
—Razib Khan, Discover Magazine, 14 June 2011
Distant strings heard faintly through an open door, a quiet trumpet in the balcony, and a huddle of wind instruments on the vast stage turned the hall into a great resonating chamber, alive with inchoate whispers.
—Vulture, 18 Mar. 2022
My own position as to the details of mutation rates and their implications for modern human origins are inchoate.
—Razib Khan, Discover Magazine, 14 July 2011