dysphoria
noun
Simple meaning
A profound and persistent unhappiness caused by having characteristics of, or being perceived as, a gender different from one's gender identity.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
dihsfawreeuhSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
dɪsˈfɔɹiə
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
LGBTQ
A profound and persistent unhappiness caused by having characteristics (body parts, clothing, etc) of, or being perceived as, a gender different from one's gender identity, experienced especially by transgender people.
A state of feeling unwell or unhappy; a feeling of emotional and mental discomfort and suffering from restlessness, malaise, depression, or anxiety.
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- C2 · Proficient (estimated)
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: (LGBTQ) A profound and persistent unhappiness caused by having characteristics (body parts, clothing, etc) of, or being perceived as, a gender different from one's gender identity, experienced especially by transgender people.
Used this way, dysphoria is a reasonably familiar word with a clearly unfavourable pull. It carries more force than its gentler alternatives. It turns up most in personal or emotional discussion and literature or storytelling contexts.
- Emotional tone
- Negative
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Strong
- How common
- Moderately common
- Connotation
- Strongly negative / painful
- Usage feel
- Everyday but emotionally strong
Where it naturally appears
- Personal/emotional discussion
- Literature/storytelling
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
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Common Patterns and Combinations
How this word naturally appears with others.
Feeling
Other combinations
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More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin
Antonyms
Sense: profound and persistent unhappiness caused by having characteristics (body parts
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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.