disperse
Americanverb (used with object)
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disperses,
present (3rd person singular)
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dispersed,
past participle, past
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dispersing
present participle
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to drive or send off in various directions; scatter.
to disperse a crowd.
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to spread widely; disseminate.
to disperse knowledge.
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to dispel; cause to vanish.
The wind dispersed the fog.
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Physical Chemistry. to cause (particles) to separate uniformly throughout a solid, liquid, or gas.
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Optics. to subject (light) to dispersion.
verb (used without object)
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disperses,
present (3rd person singular)
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dispersed,
past participle, past
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dispersing
present participle
adjective
verb
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to scatter; distribute over a wide area
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to dissipate or cause to dissipate
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to leave or cause to leave a gathering, often in a random manner
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to separate or be separated by dispersion
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(tr) to diffuse or spread (news, information, etc)
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to separate (particles) throughout a solid, liquid, or gas, as in the formation of a suspension or colloid
adjective
Synonym Usage
See scatter.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
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dispersernoun
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dispersibilitynoun
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redisperseverb
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predisperseverb (used with object)
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dispersibleadjective
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undispersedadjective
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undispersingadjective
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well-dispersedadjective
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dispersedlyadverb
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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dispersesimple
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dispersessimple
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have dispersedperfect
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has dispersedperfect
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am dispersingprogressive
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are dispersingprogressive
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is dispersingprogressive
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have been dispersingperfect progressive
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has been dispersingperfect progressive
Past
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dispersedsimple
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had dispersedperfect
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was dispersingprogressive
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were dispersingprogressive
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had been dispersingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of disperse
First recorded in 1350–1400; Middle English dispersen, disparsen (from Middle French disperser, ) from Latin dispersus (past participle of dispergere ), equivalent to di- di- 2 + -sper(g)- “scatter” (stem of -spergere, combining form of spargere “to scatter, strew”) + -sus past participle suffix
Explanation
To make a crowd at a party disperse, you could take away the food, turn off the music and ask for volunteers to clean up. Disperse is to spread out people or things, making them move in different directions. Imagine yourself standing on a basketball court holding a cup packed tight with marbles. If you turn it over, the marbles will disperse across the floor, moving away from you in all directions. Another word for this is scatter. Don't confuse this word with disburse, which means to distribute money. Remember that false friends disperse when you cease to disburse.
Vocabulary lists containing disperse
Fahrenheit 451
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The Watsons Go to Birmingham
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All American Boys
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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 less-lethal weapons proved ineffective, the department deployed tear gas on two occasions, June 8 and 14, to disperse “violent groups” and restore order.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 12, 2026
Finally, the U.S. needs to disperse facilities, such as naval and air bases, to make it more difficult for adversaries to attack.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 9, 2026
In the eastern state of Bihar, a police official was suspended for using an assault rifle to disperse student protesters in Siwan district on Saturday.
From Barron's ● Jul. 27, 2026
Police used temporary additional powers to disperse people from the area, conduct searches and demand the removal of facial coverings.
From BBC ● Jun. 13, 2026
And then they disperse, passing around bottles of water and dribbling balls and stretching their legs.
From "Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda" by Becky Albertalli
But as tech talent disperses to the likes of Austin, Texas, that reason may become less important.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 1, 2026
The Eye Spa machine uses a “cold mist atomization process,” Xie said, “that disperses micro-particles of moisture combined with soothing essential oils.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 6, 2026
Simple things like the way your body disperses fat, aging, or skin laxity can create asymmetry.
From Slate ● Feb. 22, 2026
For the first time, this proves it is possible to study pollution from re-entering rockets at such heights before it disperses, the scientists said.
From Barron's ● Feb. 19, 2026
After waiting by turns for three hours the queue disperses.
From "All Quiet on the Western Front: A Novel" by Erich Maria Remarque
Cartridges fixed on the aircraft's wings contain a substance that, when dispersed, sticks to cloud droplets, making them heavy enough to fall as rain.
From Barron's ● Aug. 12, 2026
Consider the analyst estimates for Oracle and how widely dispersed they are relative to the average.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 28, 2026
Rather than modifying the ink with surfactants or chemically altering the particles, they dispersed nanoscale ultra fine bubbles throughout the liquid.
From Science Daily ● Jul. 11, 2026
Caruso said he is optimistic that customers will return to the center, even though many Pacific Palisades residents are still dispersed.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 8, 2026
The people of these “mound builder” civilizations dispersed before the European invasion, but we know their descendants today as the Cherokee, Chickasaw, Choctaw, Muscogee Creek, and Natchez Nations of the Southeast.
From "An Indigenous People’s History of the United States" by Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz
Rather than dispersing evenly in every direction, heat can follow routes determined by the structure of a crystal.
From Science Daily ● Aug. 7, 2026
But as Southern California’s focus shifts to the sweltering heat expected for the day and the rest of the week, an expert noted that soot and particulate matter may not be dispersing normally.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 6, 2026
Brinkema barred the justice department from taking any steps to stand up or operate the fund - including processing or dispersing claims - until a preliminary hearing on 12 June.
From BBC ● Jun. 1, 2026
A relatively new missile-toting unit of Marines, based on Okinawa, is designed to fight in a contested littoral battlespace by dispersing, concealing themselves, and taking out enemy ships and aircraft.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 31, 2026
Air Force flight crews jumped into planes and flew to civilian and military airfields all over the country, dispersing bombers so that no Soviet attack could hit them all.
From "Fallout: Spies, Superbombs, and the Ultimate Cold War Showdown" by Steve Sheinkin
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.
