INARTICULATE

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does inarticulate mean? 

• INARTICULATE (adjective)
  The adjective INARTICULATE has 1 sense:

1. without or deprived of the use of speech or words

  Familiarity information: INARTICULATE used as an adjective is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• INARTICULATE (adjective)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Without or deprived of the use of speech or words

Synonyms:

inarticulate; unarticulate

Context example:

an inarticulate cry

Similar:

aphasic (unable to speak because of a brain lesion)

aphonic; voiceless (being without sound through injury or illness and thus incapable of all but whispered speech)

dumb; mute; silent (unable to speak because of hereditary deafness)

dumb (lacking the power of human speech)

incoherent; tongue-tied (unable to express yourself clearly or fluently)

mute; tongueless; unspoken; wordless (expressed without speech)

dumb; speechless (temporarily incapable of speaking)

unarticulated (uttered without the use of normal words or syllables)

Also:

incommunicative; uncommunicative (not inclined to talk or give information or express opinions)

Antonym:

articulate (expressing yourself easily or characterized by clear expressive language)

 Context examples 

He was finding speech, and all the beauty and wonder that had been pent for years behind his inarticulate lips was now pouring forth in a wild and virile flood.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

Her sobs broke out afresh, and she murmured some inarticulate thanks to me for not having driven her away from the door.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

He only, as I understand, gave an inarticulate cry?

(The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

"What did you say?" Edith demanded, having caught the rumble of inarticulate speech in her husband's throat.

(Love of Life and Other Stories, by Jack London)

And then, suddenly, without warning, uttering a cry that was inarticulate and more like the cry of an animal, John Thornton sprang upon the man who wielded the club.

(The Call of the Wild, by Jack London)

You say you love me, Janet: yes—I will not forget that; and you cannot deny it. Those words did not die inarticulate on your lips.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

He saw her lips formed into a no, though the sound was inarticulate, but her face was like scarlet.

(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)

Sometimes I wished to express my sensations in my own mode, but the uncouth and inarticulate sounds which broke from me frightened me into silence again.

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)

The cries, which had sunk down into a hoarse, inarticulate shouting, came from the room which we had first visited.

(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Life had become cheap and tawdry, a beastly and inarticulate thing, a soulless stirring of the ooze and slime.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)