dismissal
Americannoun
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an act or instance of dismissing.
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the state of being dismissed.
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a spoken or written order of discharge from employment, service, enrollment, etc.
noun
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an official notice of discharge from employment or service
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the act of dismissing or the condition of being dismissed
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Etymology
Origin of dismissal
Explanation
The act of sending someone away or firing them is dismissal. Your friend's dismissal from the pizza place where he kept dropping the dough on the floor means he's looking for a new job — preferably not in food service. When a school bell rings at the end of the day, signaling that students can leave, that's one kind of dismissal. Bad news from a boss that the company is laying you off is also a dismissal, and when a judge rules that a trial is over and the case has been dropped, it's yet another kind of dismissal. The word comes from dismiss, "send away," from the Latin root dimittere, "send different ways" or "break up."
Vocabulary lists containing dismissal
List 3
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List 6
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Legal Lingo, List 3
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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.
The CEO’s dismissal scuttled any hopes of a quick reset.
From Barron's • Jun. 10, 2026
Pelley — angry over the dismissal of his other co-workers — was fired Tuesday, a day after confronting the program’s new executive producer Nick Bilton at his first staff meeting.
From Los Angeles Times • Jun. 5, 2026
Yet as I wrangled them into my closet, something kept nagging at me like a pebble in an insole: Bernie Sanders’ eye-rolling dismissal outside the Senate elevator.
From Slate • Jun. 5, 2026
The company said in a statement that his dismissal was a result of "serious concerns" related to "important governance standards, oversight and conduct".
From BBC • May 28, 2026
After the years of crushing poverty, the dismissal by her teachers and schoolmates, the way that most people looked through girls like Jennifer as if they were too inconsequential to acknowledge with a glance?
From "Beauty Queens" by Libba Bray
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.
