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disservice

noun · verb

Simple meaning

Service that results in harm.

Pronunciation

Say it like this:

dihsurvuhs

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US device voice
IPA pronunciation (US)

dɪˈsɝvəs

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.

Word Review

Definition

Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.

noun

  1. Service that results in harm; an (intentionally or unintentionally) unhelpful, harmful action.

verb

  1. To disserve, to provide a disservice to; to provide harmful or inadequate service to.

Word at a Glance

Difficulty
C2 · Proficient
Frequency
Rare
Typical Use
Primarily written

Word Aura™

How this word commonly comes across.

Aura for this meaning

This meaning: Service that results in harm; an (intentionally or unintentionally) unhelpful, harmful action.

Used this way, disservice is a reasonably familiar word with a clearly unfavourable pull. It usually sounds natural in a wide range of settings.

Emotional tone
Negative
Formality
Neutral
Intensity
Moderate
How common
Moderately common
Connotation
Serious and weighty
Usage feel
Neutral and straightforward

Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.

More ways to use disservice

  • “He did them a disservice.”noun

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Common Patterns and Combinations

How this word naturally appears with others.

great disservicegrave disserviceserious disservicegreater disservicereal disservicemajor disservicedistinct disservicegross disservice

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More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin

Antonyms

Sense: service that results in harm

service

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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.