incongruous
UK/ɪnˈkɒn.ɡɹʊu.ʌs//ɪnˈkɑn.ɡɹu.əs/
incongruous adjective: not similar or congruent; not matching or fitting in.
Adjective
incongruous (comparative more incongruous, superlative most incongruous)
- Not similar or congruent; not matching or fitting in.
- [P]erhaps he thought me, with my basket of summer fruit, and my lack of the dignity age confers, an incongruous figure in such a scene.1853 January, Currer Bell [pseudonym; Charlotte Brontë], chapter 34, in Villette. […], volume (please specify |volume=I to III), London: Smith, Elder & Co., […], →OCLC
- Ona was blue-eyed and fair, while Jurgis had great black eyes with beetling brows, and thick black hair that curled in waves about his ears—in short, they were one of those incongruous and impossible married couples with which Mother Nature so often wills to confound all prophets.1905 April–October, Upton Sinclair, chapter I, in The Jungle, New York, N.Y.: Doubleday, Page & Company, published 26 February 1906, →OCLC
- Of two numbers, with respect to a third, such that their difference can not be divided by it without a remainder.
- 20 and 25 are incongruous with respect to 4.
incongruous meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Urdu and Bengali
incongruous in Hindi
- incongruous, mismatched
- बेमेल bemel
incongruous in Tamil
- பொருத்தமற்ற ஒத்திராத
incongruous in Urdu
- ان مل, بےجوڑ, مختلف, ناموزوں
incongruous in Bengali
- বেমানান, পারিপার্শ্বিকতার সঙ্গে অসঙ্গত
More languagesFewer languages
- incongruous in Malayalam
- വിരുദ്ധമായ, പൊരുത്തമില്ലാത്ത, തമ്മിൽ ചേർച്ചയില്ലാത്ത, യോജിക്കാത്ത
- incongruous in Kannada
- ಹೊಂದಾಣಿಕೆ ಇಲ್ಲದ, ಹೊಂದದ, ಅಸಮಂಜಸ, ಅಸಂಗತ
Examples of incongruous in a sentence
- The yellow mustache appeared incongruous in the midst of such swarthiness.1912, Jack London, chapter 1, in A Son Of The Sun:
- A slightly incongruous note is struck by the National Westminster Bank beside the Vine [pub], a tiny dolls' house of a building, about the size of a garden shed, in herringbone-patterned brick.1980, AA Book of British Villages, Drive Publications Ltd, page 202, about Goudhurst, Kent:
- Scotland had scored a goal that seemed incongruous to the rest of their performance and, briefly, a fiercely partisan crowd sensed an improbable comeback.2014 November 18, Daniel Taylor, “England and Wayne Rooney see off Scotland in their own back yard”, in The Guardian:
Synonyms of incongruous
Forms of incongruous
| comparative | more incongruous |
|---|---|
| superlative | most incongruous |
Origin of incongruous
From Latin incongruus, from in- (“not”) + congruus (“congruent”), equivalent to in- + congruous.
Words formed from incongruous
Questions about incongruous
- What does incongruous mean?
- Incongruous means not similar or congruent; not matching or fitting in.
- What is incongruous in Hindi?
- Incongruous in Hindi is बेमेल (bemel). See Incongruous meaning in Hindi.
- How do you use incongruous in a sentence?
- The yellow mustache appeared incongruous in the midst of such swarthiness.
- What part of speech is incongruous?
- Incongruous is an adjective.
- How do you pronounce incongruous?
- Incongruous is pronounced /ɪnˈkɒn.ɡɹʊu.ʌs/ (UK).
Words near incongruous in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: incongruous (page history and authors); बेमेल (Hindi) (page history and authors); incongruous (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); incongruous (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); incongruous (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); incongruous (Malayalam Wiktionary) (page history and authors); incongruous (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-incongruous.ogg.
Cite this entry: “incongruous.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/incongruous. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.