disable
verb
Simple meaning
To deactivate, to make inoperational.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
dihsaybuhlSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
dɪˈseɪbəl
This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.
IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.
Definition
Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.
verb
chiefly electronicscomputing
To deactivate, to make inoperational (especially of a function of an electronic or mechanical device).
chiefly of a person
To impair the physical or mental abilities of; to cause a serious, permanent injury.
Make unable to perform a certain action
“Disable this command on your computer.”
transitive
To render unable; to take away an ability of, as by crippling.
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- B2 · Upper Intermediate
- Frequency
- Common
- Typical Use
- Varies by meaning
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: To deactivate, to make inoperational (especially of a function of an electronic or mechanical device).
Used this way, disable is a specialist word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. This is a computing use: it carries a fixed technical meaning inside software and systems work.
- Emotional tone
- Neutral
- Formality
- Specialist/technical
- Intensity
- Not strongly marked
- How common
- Specialized
- Connotation
- Clinical and technical
- Usage feel
- Technical and specialized
Where it naturally appears
- Technology
- Technical/specialist writing
- Business/professional
Usage note
In general conversation this sense usually needs explaining — outside its field, people reach for a plainer word.
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
More ways to use disable
- “Disable this command on your computer.”verb
- “He was disabled in a car accident.”verb
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Common Patterns and Combinations
How this word naturally appears with others.
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Word Family
Related forms, grouped by how they connect.
Inflected forms
Grammatical variations of the same word.
People collectively who are crippled or otherwise physically handicapped.
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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.