fragmented
adjective
frag·ment·ed
ˈfrag-ˌmen-təd 
1
: broken or separated into distinct parts
Another fragmented language group is the Austroasiatic family, whose most widely spoken languages are Vietnamese and Cambodian.—
Jared Diamond
Jared DiamondThe reality seems to be that the global audience for movies has become increasingly diverse and fragmented, which runs against Hollywood's obsession with finding that magic common denominator.—Peter Bart
Peter Bart2
computing
: having related or associated pieces of stored data disorganized in a way that makes them more difficult to access
Fragmented files require much more work to read than contiguous files, because to do so DOS must chase down each sector, possibly moving the disk head back and forth many times. Each of these … slows the task at hand and results in additional wear and tear on your hard disk.—Brett Glass
Brett GlassYou probably won't notice a marked performance boost unless your hard drive is extremely fragmented.—Doug Stanley
Doug Stanley
Examples of fragmented in a Sentence
restoring the fragmented Roman sculpture was like putting together a jigsaw puzzle
Recent Examples on the Web
Not even the gradual inclusion of name-brand actors like Colin Farrell, Rachel Weisz and Nicole Kidman could dull the bewilderment (try explaining the plot of 2015’s The Lobster to an unsuspecting bystander), or offer a GPS route through his fragmented, fish-eyed looks at human behavior.
—David Fear, Rolling Stone, 18 May 2024
Alcohol can block or interfere with deep sleep, making sleep more fragmented.
—Regina G. Barber, NPR, 16 May 2024
See all Example Sentences for fragmented 
David Fear, Rolling Stone, 18 May 2024
Alcohol can block or interfere with deep sleep, making sleep more fragmented.
—Regina G. Barber, NPR, 16 May 2024
See all Example Sentences for fragmented
These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'fragmented.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.
Dictionary Entries Near fragmented
Cite this Entry
“Fragmented.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/fragmented. Accessed 29 May. 2024.
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