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 StanleyExamples of fragmented in a Sentence
restoring the fragmented Roman sculpture was like putting together a jigsaw puzzle
Recent Examples on the Web
United Rentals, which was founded to essentially roll up a fragmented and inefficient industry, believed that the best use of its enormous free cash flow generation was to buy up competitors to drive growth through acquisition.
—Jenny Van Leeuwen Harrington, CNBC, 8 Apr. 2025
The real challenges lie in operational inertia, fragmented adoption and underutilization of existing tools.
—Arthur Zaczkiewicz, Footwear News, 8 Apr. 2025
Panelists stressed the importance of consolidating fragmented tech stacks to ensure seamless interactions from browsing to purchase.
—Tyler Shepherd, USA Today, 4 Apr. 2025
Tennis: The sport’s media is a fragmented mess, from Grand Slam broadcast rights to social media highlights.
—Natasha Frost, New York Times, 3 Apr. 2025
See All Example Sentences for fragmented
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Jenny Van Leeuwen Harrington, CNBC, 8 Apr. 2025
The real challenges lie in operational inertia, fragmented adoption and underutilization of existing tools.
—Arthur Zaczkiewicz, Footwear News, 8 Apr. 2025
Panelists stressed the importance of consolidating fragmented tech stacks to ensure seamless interactions from browsing to purchase.
—Tyler Shepherd, USA Today, 4 Apr. 2025
Tennis: The sport’s media is a fragmented mess, from Grand Slam broadcast rights to social media highlights.
—Natasha Frost, New York Times, 3 Apr. 2025
See All Example Sentences for fragmented
Cite this Entry
“Fragmented.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/fragmented. Accessed 16 Apr. 2025.
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