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HOW TO PRONOUNCE

inchoate

/ɪnˈkoʊət/

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American Pronunciation Guide · 1:05
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What does inchoate mean?

adjective

  1. Recently started but not fully formed yet; just begun; only elementary or immature.
  2. Chaotic, disordered, confused; also, incoherent, rambling.
  3. Of a crime, imposing criminal liability for an incompleted act.
More meanings (4)

verb

  1. To begin or start (something).
  2. To cause or bring about. In the field of criminology, to encourage, assist, conspire, aid and abet, incite, etc.
  3. To make a start.

noun

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

Definitions regrouped for readability · CC BY-SA 4.0

IPA pronunciation

/ɪnˈkoʊət/

Wiktionary contributors · CC BY-SA 4.0

Other dictionary pronunciations

/ɪnˈkoʊeɪt/
Wiktionary contributors · CC BY-SA 4.0

Pronunciation varies by speaker and region. About these dictionary pronunciations.

In the pages of books

See this word in context.

It may be well to relate how we do it, for the benefit of other inchoate Goths.
Charles Dudley WarnerThe Complete Writings of Charles Dudley Warner — Volume 1Project Gutenberg ebook #2671
In the inchoate phase of their development they are but different aspects of the same general facts of social structure.
Thorstein VeblenThe Theory of the Leisure ClassProject Gutenberg ebook #833
More book examples (3)
The more the educator knows of music the more he can perceive the possibilities of the inchoate musical impulses of a child.
John DeweyDemocracy and Education: An Introduction to the Philosophy of EducationProject Gutenberg ebook #852
Taking their own clear-cut conceptions, discriminated by a developed terminology, these missionaries tried to translate them into languages that had neither the words nor the thoughts, only a vague, inchoate, tangled substratum, out of which these thoughts and words later differentiated themselves.
A. C. (Albert Charles) SewardDarwin and Modern ScienceProject Gutenberg ebook #1909
Perchance, amid their proper element of smoke, which eddied forth from the ill-constructed chimney, the ghosts of departed cook-maids looked wonderingly on, or peeped down the great breadth of the flue, despising the simplicity of the projected meal, yet ineffectually pining to thrust their shadowy hands into each inchoate dish.
Nathaniel HawthorneThe House of the Seven GablesProject Gutenberg ebook #77