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

The 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

2

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

You probably won't notice a marked performance boost unless your hard drive is extremely fragmented.

—Doug Stanley

Synonyms

• broken
• busted
• fractured
• shattered
• smashed

Examples of fragmented in a Sentence

restoring the fragmented Roman sculpture was like putting together a jigsaw puzzle

Recent Examples on the Web

Short of a majority in an increasingly fragmented political landscape, however, his conservatives will have to sound out partners to form a coalition. —Sarah Marsh and Matthias Williams, USA TODAY, 24 Feb. 2025

This gap is particularly acute as shopping becomes more fragmented across channels, from marketplaces to social media to traditional e-commerce sites. —Kiri Masters, Forbes, 24 Feb. 2025

Additionally, challenges like data standardization and fragmented industry data silos could hinder AI’s full potential in the Chinese fashion sector. —Li Jun, WWD, 24 Feb. 2025

Especially in today's polarized and fragmented media environment, local news remains particularly influential because its audiences are still large and, importantly, it is still viewed positively and trusted by audiences from both parties. —Erika Franklin Fowler, ABC News, 24 Feb. 2025

Word History

First Known Use

circa 1817, in the meaning defined at sense 1