- past tense form of discipline.
- past participle of discipline.
disciplined
Americanadjective
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of disciplined
First recorded in 1350–1400; Middle English; discipline + -ed 2
Explanation
People who are disciplined are either rule-followers or they are controlled and efficient. A disciplined runner who's training for a marathon has a regular, daily exercise routine. Your disciplined puppy might be the star of her obedience class, the very best at "sit" and "stay." And your cousin who speaks six languages is also disciplined — she studies, reads, and practices speaking for hours every day. Disciplined comes from the noun discipline, which has come to mean "punishment," but is rooted in the Latin word disciplina, "teaching or knowledge," and also "military discipline."
Vocabulary lists containing disciplined
Ghost
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"La Vida Robot" and "Reading, Writing and... Recreation"
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From the Mixed-up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler
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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.
“He taught us how to save our money and he taught us how to be very disciplined and how to look out for each other.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 9, 2026
“We are becoming a faster, more agile and more disciplined organization.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 3, 2026
Beyond the plenum, China's top anti-corruption watchdog reported that 680,000 people across the party apparatus have been disciplined in the first nine months of this year.
From BBC ● Oct. 29, 2026
In his view, ”Wall Street keeps asking whether AI spending will ever pay off, and Microsoft just answered: Demand is real, monetization is accelerating and management is being disciplined about the bill.”
From MarketWatch ● Oct. 29, 2026
He was disciplined, plodding, deferential—a man of habits among men in habits.
From "The Gene" by Siddhartha Mukherjee
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Get a wordDefinitions 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.
