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INARTICULATE
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I. (adjective)
Sense 1
Meaning:
Without or deprived of the use of speech or words
Example:
an inarticulate cry
Synonyms:
inarticulate; unarticulate
Classified under:
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:
His love partook of the nature of worship, dumb, inarticulate, a silent adoration.
(White Fang, by Jack London)
The repose of the latter became more and more disturbed; and her sister, who watched, with unremitting attention her continual change of posture, and heard the frequent but inarticulate sounds of complaint which passed her lips, was almost wishing to rouse her from so painful a slumber, when Marianne, suddenly awakened by some accidental noise in the house, started hastily up, and, with feverish wildness, cried out,—Is mama coming?
(Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen)
When in the sixth round the smith was peppered twice without getting in a counter, and had the worst of the fall as well, the fellow became inarticulate altogether, and could only huzza wildly in his delight.
(Rodney Stone, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
His jaws opened, and he muttered some inarticulate sounds, while a grin wrinkled his cheeks.
(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)
Martin, with the dull pain of despair at his heart, mechanically reaching for the tobacco and paper (which he no longer carried) to roll a cigarette, muttered something inarticulate, and Ruth went on.
(Martin Eden, by Jack London)
His lips were flecked with a soapy froth, and sometimes he choked and gurgled and became inarticulate.
(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)
Suddenly he turned away, with an inarticulate exclamation, full of passionate emotion of some kind; he walked fast through the room and came back; he stooped towards me as if to kiss me; but I remembered caresses were now forbidden.
(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)
Always inarticulate and stifled.
(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)
He was inarticulate.
(Martin Eden, by Jack London)
I cried aloud in awful fear, a wild inarticulate cry; and I caught one glimpse of his face, malignant and triumphant, as his other hand compassed my body and I was drawn down to him in a terrible grip.
(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)
