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English
Etymology
From Ancient Greek ἄμορφος (ámorphos, “without form, shapeless, deformed”) (itself from ἀ- (a-, “without”) + μορφή (morphḗ, “form”) + -ous. By surface analysis, a- + -morphous.
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /əˈmɔ(ɹ)fəs/, /eɪˈmɔ(ɹ)fəs/
- Hyphenation: a‧mor‧phous
Adjective
amorphous (comparative more amorphous, superlative most amorphous)
- Lacking a definite form or clear shape.
- Synonyms: formless, shapeless; see also Thesaurus:amorphous
- Antonyms: structured, well-defined
- amorphous blob
The enormous pile of spaghetti landed on the floor in an amorphous heap.
- (by extension) Being without definite character or nature.
1920 November 9, D[avid] H[erbert] Lawrence, chapter 1, in Women in Love, New York, N.Y.: Privately printed [by Thomas Seltzer] for subscribers only, →OCLC: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 amorphous, gritty street.
2023 September 27, John Kampfner, “German politics has a built-in firewall against the far right. It’s beginning to crack”, in Katharine Viner, editor, The Guardian[1], London: Guardian News & Media, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 18 October 2026: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.
- (by extension) Lacking organization or unity.
- (physics) In the non-crystalline solid state of, or being a non-crystalline counterpart to, a crystalline solid.
- Antonyms: crystalline, crystal
- 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.
- (set theory, of a set) Infinite and not the disjoint union of two infinite subsets.
Derived terms
Translations
lacking a definite form or clear shape being without definite character or nature lacking organization or unity physics: in the non-crystalline state of solid Translations to be checked Further reading
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