amorphous

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/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

Adjective

amorphous (comparative more amorphous, superlative most amorphous)

1. Lacking a definite form or clear shape.

   Synonyms: formless, shapeless; see also Thesaurus:amorphous

   The enormous pile of spaghetti landed on the floor in an amorphous heap.

2. (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 The Guardian‎^[1], →ISSN:

     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.

3. (by extension) Lacking organization or unity.
4. (physics) In the non-crystalline solid state of a typically crystalline solid.
5. (set theory, of a set) Infinite and not the disjoint union of two infinite subsets.

Derived terms

• amorphism
• amorphous carbon
• amorphously
• amorphousness
• phosphopeptide-amorphous
• polyamorphous

 

Translations

lacking a definite form or clear shape

• Basque: eitegabe
• Bulgarian: безформен (bg) (bezformen)
• Catalan: amorf
• Czech: beztvarý (cs), amorfní (cs)
• Dutch: vormeloos (nl), amorf (nl)
• Esperanto: amorfa
• German: amorph (de), formlos (de), gestaltlos (de)
• Greek: άμορφος (el) (ámorfos)

  Ancient: ἄμορφος (ámorphos)

• Italian: amorfo (it)
• Lithuanian: beformis
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: amorf

  Nynorsk: amorf

• Ottoman Turkish: شكلسز (şekilsiz)
• Polish: amorficzny (pl), bezkształtny (pl), bezpostaciowy (pl)
• Portuguese: amorfo (pt)
• Russian: амо́рфный (ru) (amórfnyj), бесфо́рменный (ru) (besfórmennyj)
• Serbo-Croatian: amorfan (sh)
• Slovene: brezobličen
• Spanish: amorfo (es)
• Swedish: amorf (sv), formlös (sv)
• Turkish: şekilsiz (tr)

being without definite character or nature

• Catalan: amorf
• Esperanto: amorfa
• German: amorph (de)
• Greek: άμορφος (el) (ámorfos)
• Italian: amorfo (it)
• Polish: bezkształtny (pl)
• Portuguese: amorfo (pt)
• Serbo-Croatian: amorfan (sh)
• Spanish: amorfo (es)
• Swedish: amorf (sv)

lacking organization or unity

• Catalan: amorf
• Dutch: ongestructureerd (nl)
• Greek: αλλοπρόσαλλος (el) (alloprósallos)
• Korean: 조직이 없는 (jojigi eomneun)
• Swedish: amorf (sv), ostrukturerad

physics: in the non-crystalline state of solid

• Bulgarian: аморфен (bg) (amorfen)
• Catalan: amorf
• Danish: amorf
• Dutch: amorf (nl)
• Faroese: skapleysur
• Finnish: amorfinen (fi)
• French: amorphe (fr)
• German: amorph (de)
• Greek: άμορφος (el) (ámorfos)
• Greenlandic: aaliangersimasumik iluseqanngitsoq
• Italian: amorfo (it)
• Japanese: アモルファス (ja) (amorufasu)
• Latvian: amorfs (lv)
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: amorf

  Nynorsk: amorf

• Portuguese: amorfo (pt)
• Russian: амо́рфный (ru) (amórfnyj)
• Spanish: amorfo (es)
• Swedish: amorf (sv), icke-kristallin

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

Translations to be checked

• French: ^{(please verify)} amorphe (fr)

Further reading

• amorphous solid on Wikipedia.Wikipedia