inchoate
adjective · verb
Simple meaning
Recently started but not fully formed yet.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
inchohtSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
ˈɪnˈtʃoʊt
This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.
IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.
Definition
Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.
adjective
Recently started but not fully formed yet; just begun; only elementary or immature.
Chaotic, disordered, confused; also, incoherent, rambling.
law
Of a crime, imposing criminal liability for an incompleted act.
verb
transitive
To begin or start (something).
intransitive
To make a start.
transitive
To cause or bring about. In the field of criminology, to encourage, assist, conspire, aid and abet, incite, etc.
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: Recently started but not fully formed yet; just begun; only elementary or immature.
Used this way, inchoate is a reasonably familiar word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It usually sounds natural in a wide range of settings.
- Emotional tone
- Neutral
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Not strongly marked
- How common
- Moderately common
- Connotation
- No strong connotation
- Usage feel
- Neutral and straightforward
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.