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Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
inconclusive
adjective
COLLOCATIONS FROM CORPUS
■ NOUN
result
▪ Inevitably this led to uncertainties and inconclusive results, with some notable successes and failures.
▪ There have been inconclusive results from school-based clinic programs that provide contraception without a broader educational backdrop.
▪ The operation has been performed on 10 patients so far, with inconclusive results.
EXAMPLES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
▪ Jurors often have to make decisions based on inconclusive evidence.
▪ Studies on the benefits of year-round schools are inconclusive.
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪ A work both director and composer left unfinished felt fragmentary, inconclusive and, all too often, artistically baffling.
▪ Never mind even that it might be inconclusive.
▪ Similarly inconclusive are studies that have attempted to evaluate the managerialist hypothesis through surveys of management attitudes based on questionnaires.
▪ The evidence is inconclusive, but a further visit to Rome, perhaps in 1030, can not be completely ruled out.
▪ The operation has been performed on 10 patients so far, with inconclusive results.
▪ We asked ourselves the same questions, and the answers were inconclusive.
▪ Without well-defined melodic periods phrases become inconclusive, merging into one another.
▪ X-rays were taken but proved inconclusive.
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Inconclusive

Inconclusive \In`con*clu"sive\, a. Not conclusive; leading to no conclusion; not closing or settling a point in debate, or a doubtful question; as, evidence is inconclusive when it does not exhibit the truth of a disputed case in such a manner as to satisfy the mind, and put an end to debate or doubt.

Arguments . . . inconclusive and impertinent.
--South. -- In`con*clu"sive*ly, adv. -- In`con*clu"sive*ness, n.

Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
inconclusive

1680s (implied in inconclusiveness), from in- (1) "not, opposite of" + conclusive. Related: Inconclusively.

Wiktionary
inconclusive

a. Not conclusive, not leading to a conclusion

WordNet
inconclusive
  1. adj. not conclusive; not putting an end to doubt or question; "an inconclusive reply"; "inconclusive evidence"; "the inconclusive committee vote" [ant: conclusive]

  2. leading to no final results or outcome; "an inconclusive experiment"

Usage examples of "inconclusive".

The Angevin, who above all things liked to count and consolidate his gains in conflict, foresaw a long train of inconclusive aggressions and reprisals between church and state in which his arm, however powerful, could not effectively come at the ghostly armor of his antagonist.

Early testing indicates that computerized analysis is more accurate and produces fewer inconclusive results than human-administered tests.

An inconclusive test, though Backster's prior research is of considerable interest.

In the writings of Gregg Rickman, however, diagnoses of Dick abound and are relentlessly flogged despite the highly inconclusive evidence.

My tests on a possible chemical dependence have been inconclusive.

The Church, too, was upset, but the scars from the old Empire ran deep, and memories of the massive losses and inconclusive ending to the struggle produced a great deal of reluctance to commit themselves again to a massive military campaign estimated to cost up to a million lives.

Kilmartin’s voice was full of the light inflections of whimsy, the sonorous and beguiling range of tones and emphases, of words lingered on, others dropped like petals on water, at once inviting and intimate, one minute wryly direct, dreamily inconclusive the next.

Some theorists have been exploring the possibility of incorporating extra time dimensions into string theory, but as yet the situation is inconclusive.

Efforts to prove the truth of this had been inconclusive, but this inconclusiveness was in itself an affirmative answer: The computers were not capable of evasion, and it had been obvious that evasiveness was at work here.

Many of them jabbered and punched each other, in noisy, inconclusive bouts.

The same inconclusive work-outs on the track, the same slanderous rumours, same gossip, same stupid jokes, same stupid trainers, shooting their goddam stupid mouths off.

The contest was brief and inconclusive, as their neuters called them off and guided them to different cubes.

The footprints I found at the observation post were inconclusive, but probably not large enough to be a Jem’.

Vincennes stated that all three suspects' hands and arms reeked of perfume--a paraffin test would be inconclusive.

Everything else-submarine sinkings, land campaigns, air battles-more and more looked to him like vain blood-spillings, inconclusive obsolete gestures before this one big showdown, Hitler's plunge into Russia, opening a second front and releasing England from near doom, struck him as a madman's mistake-unless the Germans had successfully created a controlled chain reaction.