amorphous

Lacking a definite form or clear shape.

Adjective

  1. Lacking a definite form or clear shape.
    • amorphous blob
    • The enormous pile of spaghetti landed on the floor in an amorphous heap.

    Synonyms: formless shapeless

    Antonyms: structured well-defined

  2. Being without definite character or nature.
    • Gudrun, new from her life in Chelsea and Sussex, shrank cruelly from this amorphous ugliness of a small colliery town in the Midlands. Yet forward she went, through the whole sordid gamut of pettiness, the long...
    • And people talking all the time about the AfD is just what it wants: to foster the impression that the others are ganging up against it. The “authentic” voice of “real people” v the amorphous elite. - 2023 September 27,...
  3. Lacking organization or unity.
  4. In the non-crystalline solid state of, or being a non-crystalline counterpart to, a crystalline solid.
    • Near-synonym: noncrystalline
    • Glass is an amorphous solid, but some glass is called "crystal" because it looks crystalline and has been called crystal since before humans even understood molecular structure at all.

    Synonyms: noncrystalline

    Antonyms: crystalline crystal

  5. Infinite and not the disjoint union of two infinite subsets.

Origin

From Ancient Greek ἄμορφος (ámorphos, “without form, shapeless, deformed”) (itself from ἀ- (a-, “without”) + μορφή (morphḗ, “form”) + -ous. By surface analysis, a- + -morphous.

Forms

more amorphous most amorphous

Synonyms

amorphic amorphous formless shapeless unshaped unshapely

Antonyms

misshapen shapely

Hypernyms

lacking

Hyponyms

blobby

Derived

amorphism amorphous carbon amorphously amorphousness phosphopeptide-amorphous polyamorphous