English
inchoate
Pronunciation
  • (RP) IPA: /ɪnˈkəʊət/, /ɪnˈkəʊeɪt/
  • (America) IPA: /ɪnˈkoʊət/, /ɪnˈkoʊeɪt/

    Verb:

  • (RP) IPA: /ɪnˈkəʊeɪt/
  • (America) IPA: /ɪnˈkoʊeɪt/
Adjective

inchoate

  1. Recently started but not fully formed yet; just begun; only elementary or immature.
    Synonyms: elementary, immature, embryonic, incipient, nascent, rudimentary
    • neither a substance perfect, nor a substance inchoate
    • 1677, Richard Allestree, The Art of Contentment, p. 187 ↗
      It do's indeed perfect and crown thoſe graces which were here inchoate and begun, but no mans converſion ever ſucceeded his being there ...
    • 1803, Supreme Court of the United States, Marbury v. Madison
      This appointment is evidenced by an open, unequivocal act, and, being the last act required from the person making it, necessarily excludes the idea of its being, so far as it respects the appointment, an inchoate and incomplete transaction.
    • 1839, Cherokee Constitution
      It being determined that a constitution should be made for the inchoate government, men were selected by its sponsors, from those at the Illinois Camp Ground, including as many western Cherokees as could be induced to sign it.
    • 1885, Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, On the Death of General Gordon
      ...unfortunately, we have to face inchoate schemes which will demand the utmost jealousy and vigilance of Parliament.
    • 1889, Robert Louis Stevenson and Lloyd Osborne, The Wrong Box, chapter 6
      The private conception of any breach of law is apt to be inspiriting, for the scheme (while yet inchoate) wears dashing and attractive colours.
    • 1919, H. P. Lovecraft, The Doom That Came to Sarnath
      Very odd and ugly were these beings, as indeed are most beings of a world yet inchoate and rudely fashioned.
    • 1928, Hermann Hesse, Steppenwolf
      How inutterably sad was the look this fluid inchoate figure of the wolf threw from his beautiful shy eyes.
    • 2004, David Hajdu, "[https://web.archive.org/web/20090720113810/http://www.davidhajdu.com/articles/01NY.html Folk Hero]", The New Yorker, 29 March 2004
      Guthrie’s inchoate socialist leanings grew into a deep commitment to the labor movement.
  2. Chaotic, disordered, confused; also, incoherent, rambling.
    Synonyms: chaotic, confused
  3. (law) Of a crime, imposing criminal liability for an incompleted act.
    • 2006, United States v. McKenney, 450 F.3d 39 (1st Cir. 2006)
      Congress considers the inchoate offenses of attempt and conspiracy, even conspiracy without an overt act, to be just as serious as the federal substantive drug offenses which they contemplate.
Translations Translations Noun

inchoate (plural inchoates)

  1. (rare) A beginning, an immature start.
Verb

inchoate (inchoates, present participle inchoating; past and past participle inchoated)

  1. (transitive) To begin or start (something).
  2. (transitive) To cause or bring about.
  3. (intransitive) To make a start.
Related terms

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