disorder
noun · verb
Simple meaning
Absence of order.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
dihsawrderSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
dɪˈsɔɹdɚ
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.
noun
Absence of order; state of not being arranged in an orderly manner.
medicinecountable
A physical or mental malfunction.
A disturbance of civic peace or of public order.
verb
transitive
To knock out of order or sequence.
Bring disorder to
transitive
To throw into a state of disorder.
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- A2 · Elementary (estimated)
- Frequency
- Common
- Typical Use
- General English
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: A physical or mental malfunction.
Used this way, disorder is a specialist word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. This is a clinical use: it belongs to medical description, where it is factual rather than emotive.
- 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
- Medicine/healthcare
- Science
- Technical/specialist writing
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 disorder
- “The doctor prescribed some medicine for the disorder.”noun
- “The files are in complete disorder.”noun
Share your sentence
Common Patterns and Combinations
How this word naturally appears with others.
Physical
Other combinations
Tap the highlighted word to open its own entry.
Similar Words, What’s the Difference?
Close in meaning, but not always interchangeable.
Word Family
Related forms, grouped by how they connect.
Inflected forms
Grammatical variations of the same word.
Not arranged in order.
Word family
Words built from the same root.
Undisciplined and unruly.
Compound terms
Established multiword terms.
Any act of molesting, interrupting, hindering, agitating, or arousing from a state of repose or otherwise depriving inhabitants of the peace and quiet to which they are entitled.
Any act of molesting, interrupting, hindering, agitating, or arousing from a state of repose or otherwise depriving inhabitants of the peace and quiet to which they are entitled.
Dementia observed during the last stages of severe chronic alcoholism.
A condition (mostly in boys) characterized by behavioral and learning disorders.
A condition (mostly in boys) characterized by behavioral and learning disorders.
A cover term for a variety of mental disorders in which severe anxiety is a salient symptom.
More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin
Synonyms
Antonyms
Sense: absence of order
Use This Word
See how this word sounds in a real sentence.
Ask Vocabaura
Understand the word your way.
What Does It Mean Here?
Words can change meaning depending on context.
Use it yourself
Knowing “disorder” starts when you use it. Pick a next step, all free.
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.