inchoate

[ in-koh-it, -eytor, especially British, in-koh-eyt ]

adjective

1. not yet completed or fully developed; rudimentary.
2. just begun; incipient.
3. not organized; lacking order:

   an inchoate mass of ideas on the subject.

inchoate

/ ɪnˈkəʊətɪv /

adjective

1. just beginning; incipient
2. undeveloped; immature; rudimentary
3. (of a legal document, promissory note, etc) in an uncompleted state; not yet made specific or valid

verb

1. to begin

Derived Forms

• inˈchoateness, noun
• ˌinchoˈation, noun
• inˈchoately, adverb
• inchoative, adjective

Other Words From

• in·choate·ly adverb
• in·choate·ness noun

Word History and Origins

Origin of inchoate¹

1525–35; < Latin inchoātus, variant of incohātus, past participle of incohāre “to begin, start work on,” perhaps equivalent to in- in- ²( def ) + coh(um) “hollow of a yoke into which the pole is fitted” + -ātus -ate ¹

Word History and Origins

Origin of inchoate¹

C16: from Latin incohāre to make a beginning, literally: to hitch up, from in- ² + cohum yokestrap

Example Sentences

The metaverse is inchoate enough as a concept for just about anyone to seem like they know what they’re doing, regardless of whether they actually do.

From Digiday

At these basal layers, beneath even emotions and moods, there lies a cognitively subterranean, inchoate, difficult-to-describe experience of simply being a living organism.

From Nautilus

Yet, despite its inchoate state and potential dismissal by other browsers, the method has been added not just to specs for digital ad techniques but for a variety of potential web standards.

From Digiday

Previously, I had imagined each of my fetuses as a sort of generic polliwog inside me, inchoate and more or less benign, or at least not yet capable of mocking my choice of walking shoes.

From Washington Post

Their inchoate fury lumped together anger at same-sex marriage, at foreigners and at “the system.”

From The Daily Beast

Yet the show has gotten a deal of negative criticism for being inchoate, unselective, too rambling, and uneven.

From The Daily Beast

But more often than not, the terrible beatings rained down on them for no reason other than sheer inchoate rage.

From The Daily Beast

Though blurred, the economic divide was still manifest, although all of them seemed to feel strong, if inchoate, political fervor.

From The Daily Beast

William Morris is so inchoate that you can't even really describe their culture.

From The Daily Beast

The specimen shown in fig. 51 contains four perfect Swastikas and two inchoate and uncertain.

From Project Gutenberg

He was as awkward in displaying that inchoate theatre as a newly-made father with his first-born.

From Project Gutenberg

But the time came when equally inchoate ideas of his own manhood led him to grow cool.

From Project Gutenberg

The result was the second stage, which my enemies call inchoate and I call Impressionism.

From Project Gutenberg

In the inchoate phase of their development they are but different aspects of the same general facts of social structure.

From Project Gutenberg