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

Longwell said that fragmented media diets are particularly prevalent in younger voters, especially among 18- to 29-year-olds. —Thomas G. Moukawsher, Newsweek, 5 Nov. 2024

In a fragmented media landscape, getting the attention of voters who aren’t partisan news consumers is fraught, says Daniel Kreiss, a professor of political communication at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. —Simon Montlake, The Christian Science Monitor, 1 Nov. 2024

The result is a fragmented network that leaves businesses and consumers in a unique position. —Zennon Kapron, Forbes, 1 Nov. 2024

This new fragmented reality is the future — not just of elections, but also for how America learns about business, products, technology, culture and current events. —Axios, 28 Oct. 2024

Word History

First Known Use

circa 1817, in the meaning defined at sense 1