inarticulate
/ˌɪnɑːˈtɪkjʊlət
/adjective
1Unable to express one’s ideas or feelings clearly or easily: an inarticulate man of action...
- He becomes completely inarticulate and unable to close the deal, as it were, because he loves her too much!
- It's the one where he played a dumb sullen inarticulate Brooklyn paint-store clerk.
- He was verbally inarticulate and could not enunciate a clear concept or formulate ideas.
Synonyms
tongue-tied, lost for words, at a loss for words, unable to express oneself, unable to get a word out, poorly spoken;
mute, dumb, speechless
rare mumchance
1.1Not clearly expressed or pronounced: Fay gave a faint, inarticulate cry...
- He's a little dumbfounded at reviews of the film that criticize the repetitiveness of some dialogue or inarticulate speech, two of the aspects that make the film feel true.
- Paradoxically, his inarticulate speech and inchoate thinking vividly express his frustration and anger: he has no skills with which to cope effectively with the inevitable set-backs of his life.
- I would think long and hard before assuming that inarticulate speech and a gift for malapropism are indicators of stupidity.
Synonyms
unintelligible, incomprehensible, incoherent, unclear, indistinct, mumbled, muttered, muffled;
hesitant, faltering, hesitating, halting, stumbling, stuttering, stammering;
confused, garbled, muddled, rambling, disjointed, jumbled
1.2Not expressed in words: mention of her mother filled her with inarticulate irritation...
- Because so many of the encounters are inarticulate, ideas aren't developed as fluently as in the two earlier films.
- At that moment he felt toward Mary and Jan a dumb, cold, and inarticulate hate.
- Her comment struck me as the most penetrating I have heard in relation to this much-discussed film, which has incited a level of critical hostility, in some cases bordering on inarticulate rage, rarely seen in the mass media these days.
Synonyms
unspoken, silent, unexpressed, wordless, unvoiced, unsaid, unuttered, unvocalized;
voiceless, soundless
2Without joints or articulations.
2.1 Zoology Denoting a brachiopod in which the valves of the shell have no hinge and are held together by muscles.The Discinids are a small long-lived group of inarticulate brachiopods with chitinophosphatic shells....
- The Brachiopoda for example, was present, but greatest diversity was shown by inarticulate brachiopods (like the one in the upper middle, from the Upper Cambrian of Iowa).
- Quasimodaspis, along with the inarticulate brachiopods that are the only other fossils so far recovered from this locality, was probably transported from a shallower facies.
Derivatives
inarticulacy
- What was important to us was to make a film that was about a kind of inarticulacy of experience, which was about how difficult it is to develop, whatever age you are - whether you're 17 or whether you're 40.
- Yet for me, for whatever reason - maybe it was my small rebellion - it was inarticulacy that moved me.
- His dewy-eyed, slightly fumbling sincerity - his brilliantly articulate impersonation of earnest inarticulacy - has all along been tied to this self-projection as a Good Man.
inarticulately
/ adverb ...- They express, however inarticulately, an understanding of what life might be about, outside the constraints of work and the struggle for survival.
- I stood and rather inarticulately said my piece.
- I'm not trying to have an argument either - that's what the ‘I don't care’ was inarticulately trying to express.
inarticulateness
/ noun ...- The same inarticulateness and lack of differentiation described below makes it difficult to come up with much germane to the major event of the day, but when words seem like a luxury, there's always film.
- But inarticulateness can be a serious liability when nuanced explanations from the Commander-in-Chief are required.
- So when I found out that he was on the panel, I was reduced to a bundle of inarticulateness.
Origin
Early 17th century: from in-1 'not' + the adjective articulate; the sense 'not clearly pronounced' corresponds to that of late Latin inarticulatus.