Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- adjective Lacking in harmony; incompatible.
- adjective Not in agreement, as with principles; inconsistent.
- adjective Not in keeping with what is correct, proper, or logical; inappropriate.
from The Century Dictionary.
- In the theory of numbers, not congruent: thus, 7 and 8 are incongruous to the modulus 3, giving different remainders when divided by the modulus.
- Not congruous; incapable of reciprocally fitting and agreeing; unsuited or unsuitable; inharmonious.
- Consisting of inappropriate parts, or of parts not fitly put together; disjointed: as, an incongruous story.
- Synonyms Inconsistent, etc. (see
incompatible ), unsuitable, unsuited, unfit, inappropriate, ill-matched, out of keeping.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- adjective Not congruous; reciprocally disagreeing; not capable of harmonizing or readily assimilating; inharmonious; inappropriate; unsuitable; not fitting; inconsistent; improper
- adjective (Arith.) two numbers, which, with respect to a third, are such that their difference can not be divided by it without a remainder, the two numbers being said to be
incongruous with respect to the third; as, twenty and twenty-five areincongruous with respect to four.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- adjective Not
similar orcongruent ; notmatching orfitting in.
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- adjective lacking in harmony or compatibility or appropriateness
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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On occasion, however, material, geographical, and emotional distance resulted in incongruous appropriations that were the result of images and meanings randomly and bizarrely associated with each other.
'I Saw a Nightmare …' Doing Violence to Memory: The Soweto Uprising, June 16, 1976 2005
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People dig it when they see other people dancing in incongruous places.
Boing Boing: August 29, 2004 - September 4, 2004 Archives 2004
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That night -- I call it that though the constant weak daylight made the term incongruous -- activity showed in the City of Ice.
Tarrano the Conqueror Ray Cummings 1922
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So composite and incongruous is this body of Nile-goers, young and old, well-dressed and ill-dressed, learned and unlearned, that the new-comer's first impulse is to inquire from what motives so many persons of dissimilar tastes and training can be led to embark upon an expedition which is, to say the least of it, very tedious, very costly, and of an altogether exceptional interest.
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Briscoe eyed him sternly, the expression incongruous with the habitual aspect of his broad, jovial, florid face.
The Ordeal A Mountain Romance of Tennessee Mary Noailles Murfree 1886
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Sometimes, with mechs, a smile could transform the face into something even less human—the expression somehow incongruous on the synthetic lips, a quaint and unsettling party trick, like a dog propped at the dinner table with a fork and spoon.
Crashed ROBIN WASSERMAN 2009
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Sometimes, with mechs, a smile could transform the face into something even less human—the expression somehow incongruous on the synthetic lips, a quaint and unsettling party trick, like a dog propped at the dinner table with a fork and spoon.
Crashed ROBIN WASSERMAN 2009
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These backstories give the characters weight and depth that informs their actions and doesn't feel incongruous, which is quite an achievement.
The Year of Our War by Steph Swainston + Richard Morgan snippet Adam Whitehead 2008
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These backstories give the characters weight and depth that informs their actions and doesn't feel incongruous, which is quite an achievement.
Archive 2008-03-01 Adam Whitehead 2008
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Randall Jarrell wrote that in war "the incongruous is the common-place homogenous texture of all life."
mohitanand commented on the word incongruous
lacking in harmony or compatibility or appropriateness
The vast economic inequality of modern society is incongruous with America's ideals.
October 15, 2016