Meanings
comparative more ungrammatical · superlative most ungrammatical
- human sciencesIn violation of one or more of the rules and conventions of a language as defined by the grammar, resulting in unacceptable or incorrect usage.
That comment seemed to anger Ingraham, who called James’ view a “barely intelligible, not to mention ungrammatical take on President Trump.”
2018 February 17, Devan Cole, “LeBron James: ‘I am more than an athlete’”, in CNN2 more examples
My Greek is not the tongue of Homer or Aeschylus but a sloppy ungrammatical sabir lacking Attic salt and tending to a saccharinity which sets my teeth on edge.
1985, Anthony Burgess, Kingdom of the WickedWhile adopting the pronoun as a nonbinary description is vastly preferable for some, Merriam-Webster says, there has also been some debate that it is ungrammatical.
2019 September 17, Kendall Trammell, “Merriam-Webster adds the nonbinary pronoun ‘they’ to its dictionary”, in CNNSynonyms: agrammatical, ungrammatic · Antonyms: grammatical
Synonyms & antonyms
adjectiveIn violation of one or more of the rules and conventions of a language as defined by the grammar, resulting in unacceptable or incorrect usage.
More synonyms by meaning
adjectivenot grammatical; not conforming to the rules of grammar or accepted usage
Synonym sets from Open English WordNet, CC BY 4.0.
Origin
- Proto-Indo-European*né
- Proto-Indo-European*n̥-
- Proto-Germanic*un-
- Proto-West Germanic*un-
- Old Englishun-
- Middle Englishun-
- Englishun-
- Englishgrammatical
- Englishungrammatical
From un- + grammatical.
Full word history & related roots →Translations
Arabic مَلْحُون
- مَلْحُون (malḥūn)in violation of one or more of the rules and conventions of a language
Catalan agramatical
- agramaticalin violation of one or more of the rules and conventions of a language
Chinese Mandarin 不合文法的, 非文法的
- 不合文法的 (bùhé wénfǎ de)in violation of one or more of the rules and conventions of a language
- 非文法的 (fēi wénfǎ de)in violation of one or more of the rules and conventions of a language
Esperanto kontraŭgramatika
- kontraŭgramatikain violation of one or more of the rules and conventions of a language
Estonian ebagrammatiline
- ebagrammatilinein violation of one or more of the rules and conventions of a language
Finnish kieliopillisesti virheellinen
- kieliopillisesti virheellinenin violation of one or more of the rules and conventions of a language
French agrammatical
- agrammaticalin violation of one or more of the rules and conventions of a language
German ungrammatisch
- ungrammatischin violation of one or more of the rules and conventions of a language
Greek αντιγραμματικός
- αντιγραμματικός (antigrammatikós)in violation of one or more of the rules and conventions of a language
Hebrew לא דקדוקי
- לא דקדוקי (lo dikdukí)in violation of one or more of the rules and conventions of a language
Italian sgrammaticato
- sgrammaticatoin violation of one or more of the rules and conventions of a language
Japanese 破格, 非文法的
- 破格 (hakaku)in violation of one or more of the rules and conventions of a language
- 非文法的 (hibunpōteki)in violation of one or more of the rules and conventions of a language
Korean 비문법적
- 비문법적 (bimunbeopjeok)in violation of one or more of the rules and conventions of a language
Polish niegramatyczny, agramatyczny
- niegramatycznyin violation of one or more of the rules and conventions of a language
- agramatycznyin violation of one or more of the rules and conventions of a language
Portuguese agramatical, antigramatical
- agramaticalin violation of one or more of the rules and conventions of a language
- antigramaticalin violation of one or more of the rules and conventions of a language
- ingramaticalin violation of one or more of the rules and conventions of a language
Romanian negramatical
- negramaticalin violation of one or more of the rules and conventions of a language
Russian неграммати́ческий, негра́мотный
- неграммати́ческий (negrammatíčeskij)in violation of one or more of the rules and conventions of a language
- негра́мотный (negrámotnyj)in violation of one or more of the rules and conventions of a language
Spanish agramatical
- agramaticalin violation of one or more of the rules and conventions of a language
Swedish ogrammatisk
- ogrammatiskin violation of one or more of the rules and conventions of a language
Turkish dilbilgisi dışı
- dilbilgisi dışıin violation of one or more of the rules and conventions of a language
Cite this entry
ungrammatical. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/ungrammatical
“ungrammatical.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/ungrammatical. Accessed November 3, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “ungrammatical,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/ungrammatical.
Source: ungrammatical on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.