disrupt
Americanverb (used with object)
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disrupts,
present (3rd person singular)
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disrupted,
past participle, past
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disrupting
present participle
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to cause disorder or turmoil in.
The news disrupted their conference.
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to destroy, usually temporarily, the normal continuance or unity of; interrupt.
Telephone service was disrupted for hours.
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to break apart.
to disrupt a connection.
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Business. to radically change (an industry, business strategy, etc.), as by introducing a new product or service that creates a new market.
It’s time to disrupt your old business model.
adjective
verb
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(tr) to throw into turmoil or disorder
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(tr) to interrupt the progress of (a movement, meeting, etc)
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to break or split (something) apart
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
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disrupternoun
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disruptionnoun
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disruptornoun
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nondisruptingadjective
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undisruptedadjective
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nondisruptinglyadverb
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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disruptsimple
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disruptssimple
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have disruptedperfect
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has disruptedperfect
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am disruptingprogressive
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are disruptingprogressive
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is disruptingprogressive
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have been disruptingperfect progressive
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has been disruptingperfect progressive
Past
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disruptedsimple
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had disruptedperfect
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was disruptingprogressive
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were disruptingprogressive
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had been disruptingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of disrupt
First recorded in 1650–60; from Latin disruptus, variant of dīruptus “broken apart,” past participle of dīrumpere “to break apart,” from dī- di- 2 + rumpere “to break”
Explanation
To disrupt is to interrupt or throw something into disorder. If you don't turn your phone off before a play, it might ring and disrupt the actors and the audience. Disrupt goes back to the Latin root disrumpere, "to break apart." When you disrupt, you break someone's concentration, break up a routine, or break apart a system or order, as when bad weather disrupts the travel plans of people in airports. Even if your headphones keep the music in your ears only, singing out loud can disrupt those around you. A larger interruption would be if a war were to erupt. That would disrupt the peace of an entire region and its people.
Vocabulary lists containing disrupt
Make a Break for It: Rupt
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This Week in Words: December 9 - 15, 2017
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President Obama's Speech to the Nation about Terrorism
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
When Indonesia first announced plans to integrate processes for the exports of key resources, it stoked concerns about state intervention that would disrupt the flow of commodities like coal and palm oil.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 24, 2026
“I just don’t think this move in yield is as explosive yet as it’s going to need to be,” he said, “if it’s going to disrupt equities.”
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 18, 2026
Farage did not attend the results, saying Essex Police had warned him that an "organised campaign to disrupt and degrade the result" was planned.
From Barron's ● Aug. 14, 2026
The results showed that reducing TBX5 to half its normal amount is enough to disrupt DNA folding and directly contribute to heart defects.
From Science Daily ● Aug. 13, 2026
"It seeks to poison and disrupt in order to hurl us into an epoch of chaos," shouts Hitler.
From "The Boy Who Dared" by Susan Campbell Bartoletti
“The continued closure of the Strait of Hormuz disrupts international supply chains and curtails product availability,” the agency said in its closely watched monthly report on Wednesday.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 12, 2026
"Changing those structures at short notice creates significant uncertainty, disrupts planning, and places additional operational and financial pressure on organisations that are already operating with limited resources."
From BBC ● Aug. 10, 2026
They argue high concentration of the elements of mifepristone in water, specifically a hormone called progesterone, disrupts and reduces fertility in women.
From Salon ● Jul. 6, 2026
That brief warming disrupts the superconducting state and increases the sensor's electrical resistance.
From Science Daily ● Jun. 24, 2026
We trade in our morning books for our afternoon books and then Boy21 says, “They don’t want me to wear my outer-space clothes. They say it disrupts the school day. Do you agree?”
From "Boy21" by Matthew Quick
After a disrupted first season in Spain and missing out on England's World Cup squad, the 27‑year‑old told the Mirror, external that the reaction to his departure from the club he supports "hurts".
From BBC ● Aug. 23, 2026
The Slovenian-born former model skipped a number of other major events including the rescheduled White House Correspondents' Dinner on July 24, despite having attended the first version in April, which was disrupted by a gunman.
From Barron's ● Aug. 20, 2026
Water service for some residents in the area was disrupted.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 20, 2026
The dominant charge density wave returned gradually and evenly, regardless of how strongly the researchers had initially disrupted the material.
From Science Daily ● Aug. 20, 2026
One test required Mary to clamber onto the catwalk of the wind tunnel, measuring how rivets disrupted the airflow over a particular model.
From "Hidden Figures" by Margot Lee Shetterly
At one point, the mayor even compared street taco vendors to homeless encampments, with both supposedly disrupting the fabric of a well-run city.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 20, 2026
But this year’s gargantuan amount of AI-related debt supply also “feels like they are hitting a limit of what’s possible without disrupting the market.”
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 19, 2026
Boat noise has been shown to affect whales in particular, stressing them out, disrupting their hunting and drowning out their ocean-spanning songs.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 16, 2026
"Even though Europe's problems have only gotten worse with this summer's abnormally hot temperatures, drying rivers and further disrupting transport within the continent, earnings expectations for Stoxx 600 companies keep rising!"
From Barron's ● Aug. 14, 2026
It’s creating its own wild patterns, disrupting, destroying paths.
From "Paradise on Fire" by Jewell Parker Rhodes
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
