Incontiguous

Part of speech: adjective

Pronunciation: /ɪnkənˈtɪɡjuəs/

Definitions

1. Not having a continuous or connecting relationship, as seen in spatial arrangements or sequences, and lacking in unity or coherence
2. Characterized by separated qualities or elements that do not link together physically or conceptually, resulting in disjointedness or scattered nature
3. Separated by gaps or spaces so they do not touch one another ; not forming a continuous or unbroken whole with breaks or interruptions

Etymology: "Incontiguous" is a plain English compound: the prefix "in-", meaning "not", attached to "contiguous," the adjective for things that touch or lie side by side. The prefix is the ordinary English negating in- (as in "inexact" or "invisible"), so the word's meaning follows directly from its parts. "Contiguous" itself has a more interesting path. It descends from Latin "contiguus," built from "con-" ("together") and "tangere" ("to touch"), the same root that gives English "tangent" and "contact." The Latin sense was literal physical touching, and that concrete sense carried into English, where contiguous has long meant things that are in contact or adjoining. Its ancestry runs through Old French, which is why the ending looks French-shaped, though the root is pure Latin. Adding "in-" to a word that already meant "touching" produces a term for things that do not touch, a useful word when one needs to say two objects are separate without implying any particular distance between them.

Synonyms: discontinuous, nonadjacent, separate

Antonyms: contiguous, connected, adjacent