disorientation
noun
Simple meaning
The loss of one's sense of direction, or of one's position in relationship with the surroundings.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
dihsawreeuhntayshuhnSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
dɪsɔɹiənˈteɪʃən
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
The loss of one's sense of direction, or of one's position in relationship with the surroundings.
A wild delusion (especially one induced by a hallucinogenic drug)
A state of confusion with regard to time, place or identity.
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- C2 · Proficient (estimated)
- Frequency
- Rare
- Formality
- Technical
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: The loss of one's sense of direction, or of one's position in relationship with the surroundings.
Used this way, disorientation is a reasonably familiar word with a faintly unfavourable edge. It turns up most in relationships contexts.
- Emotional tone
- Slightly negative
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Moderate
- How common
- Moderately common
- Connotation
- Critical or judgemental
- Usage feel
- Neutral and straightforward
Where it naturally appears
- Relationships
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
More ways to use disorientation
- “His disorientation was the result of inattention.”noun
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Common Patterns and Combinations
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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.