INCOMPATIBLE

Pronunciation (US):

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IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does incompatible mean? 

• INCOMPATIBLE (adjective)
  The adjective INCOMPATIBLE has 9 senses:

1. not compatible

2. used especially of drugs or muscles that counteract or neutralize each other's effect

3. not suitable to your tastes or needs

4. incapable of being used with or connected to other devices or components without modification

5. of words so related that one contrasts with the other

6. not easy to combine harmoniously

7. not compatible with other facts

8. not in keeping with what is correct or proper

9. used especially of solids or solutions; incapable of blending into a stable homogeneous mixture

  Familiarity information: INCOMPATIBLE used as an adjective is familiar.

 Dictionary entry details 

• INCOMPATIBLE (adjective)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Not compatible

Context example:

incompatible colors

Similar:

clashing (sharply and harshly discordant)

contradictory; mutually exclusive (unable for both to exist or be true at the same time)

uncongenial (used of plant stock or scions; incapable of being grafted)

antagonistic (incapable of harmonious association)

Also:

incompatible; uncongenial (not suitable to your tastes or needs)

inharmonious; unharmonious (not in harmony)

mismatched (either not matched or unsuitably matched)

different (unlike in nature or quality or form or degree)

Antonym:

compatible (able to exist and perform in harmonious or agreeable combination)

Derivation:

incompatibility (the quality of being unable to exist or work in congenial combination)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Used especially of drugs or muscles that counteract or neutralize each other's effect

Synonyms:

antagonistic; incompatible

Similar:

antacid (acting to neutralize acid (especially in the stomach))

antiphlogistic (counteracting inflammation)

Sense 3

Meaning:

Not suitable to your tastes or needs

Synonyms:

incompatible; uncongenial

Context example:

the task was uncongenial to one sensitive to rebuffs

Similar:

disagreeable; unsympathetic (not agreeing with your tastes or expectations)

Also:

incompatible (not compatible)

unsympathetic (not sympathetic or disposed toward)

unfriendly (not disposed to friendship or friendliness)

Derivation:

incompatibility (the quality of being unable to exist or work in congenial combination)

Sense 4

Meaning:

Incapable of being used with or connected to other devices or components without modification

Domain category:

computer; computing device; computing machine; data processor; electronic computer; information processing system (a machine for performing calculations automatically)

Antonym:

compatible (capable of being used with or connected to other devices or components without modification)

Sense 5

Meaning:

Of words so related that one contrasts with the other

Synonyms:

contrastive; incompatible

Context example:

'rich' and 'hard-up' are contrastive terms

Similar:

antonymous (of words: having opposite meanings)

Sense 6

Meaning:

Not easy to combine harmoniously

Synonyms:

ill-sorted; incompatible; mismated; unsuited

Similar:

mismatched (either not matched or unsuitably matched)

Derivation:

incompatibility (the quality of being unable to exist or work in congenial combination)

Sense 7

Meaning:

Not compatible with other facts

Synonyms:

discrepant; incompatible

Similar:

inconsistent (displaying a lack of consistency)

Derivation:

incompatibility (the relation between propositions that cannot both be true at the same time)

Sense 8

Meaning:

Not in keeping with what is correct or proper

Synonyms:

inappropriate; incompatible; out or keeping; unfitting

Context example:

completely inappropriate behavior

Similar:

incongruous (lacking in harmony or compatibility or appropriateness)

Sense 9

Meaning:

Used especially of solids or solutions; incapable of blending into a stable homogeneous mixture

Similar:

immiscible; non-miscible; unmixable ((chemistry, physics) incapable of mixing)

 Context examples 

As this silence continued, every day made it appear more strange and more incompatible with the disposition of both.

(Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen)

In the most severe cases, this syndrome is incompatible with life.

(Hypomelia Hypotrichosis Facial Hemangioma Syndrome, NCI Thesaurus)

Nor would it be entirely incompatible with most of the words overheard.

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

Lymphocytes from incompatible individuals will stimulate each other to proliferate significantly (usually measured by tritiated thymidine uptake) whereas those from compatible individuals will not.

(Mixed Lymphocyte Reaction Test, NCI Thesaurus)

It would be incompatible with what she owed to her father, and with what she felt for him.

(Emma, by Jane Austen)

I thought this sentiment so incompatible with the establishment of any system of check on Mary Anne, that I frowned a little.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

Sometimes it appeared to them as if his silence would be the natural result of the suspected engagement, and at others that it was wholly incompatible with it.

(Northanger Abbey, by Jane Austen)

A device that experienced damage as the result of a chemical agent used during the sterilization process e.g. excessive residual chemical or an incompatible sterilant.

(Device Chemical Agent Damage Evaluation Result, Food and Drug Administration)

The research also shows the existence of ancient HBV genotypes in locations incompatible with their present-day distribution, contradicting previously-suggested geographical origins of the virus.

(Oldest genetic evidence of Hepatitis B virus found in ancient DNA from 4,500 year-old skeletons, University of Cambridge)

IRESs can fold into a stable secondary hairpin structure to be incompatible with efficient translation by ribosomal scanning.

(Internal Ribosome Entry Site, NCI Thesaurus)