dismissal

American  

[dis-mis-uhl] / dɪsˈmɪs əl /

Also dismission

noun

• dismissals
  plural

1. an act or instance of dismissing.

2. the state of being dismissed.

3. a spoken or written order of discharge from employment, service, enrollment, etc.

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dismissal British  

/ dɪsˈmɪsəl /

noun

1. an official notice of discharge from employment or service

2. the act of dismissing or the condition of being dismissed

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Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• nondismissal
  noun
• predismissal
  noun
• redismissal
  noun

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• dismissals
  plural

Etymology

Origin of dismissal

First recorded in 1800–10; dismiss + -al ²

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."

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

dismissal dismissals

Having confidently announced the Premier League title was Liverpool's to lose last season, they then lost it quite spectacularly, resulting in manager Arne Slot's dismissal.

From BBC ● Aug. 19, 2026

The address, filmed a month after his dismissal, ended speculations on Fedorov's future and ruled out his potential cooperation with the government.

From Barron's ● Aug. 19, 2026

Thursday’s dismissal of the Trump Administration’s antisemitism lawsuit against Harvard suggests that such consequences will be rare.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 17, 2026

Carvalho ultimately relinquished his right to severance by resigning — while avoiding the possibility of dismissal.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 4, 2026

In the year that passed between the dancing brothers’ dismissal and Alice Manfred’s club meeting, the yoke Alice had knotted around Dorcas’ neck frayed till it split.

From "Jazz" by Toni Morrison

Flintoff has made scores of 33 not out, 41 not out, 34 and 61 not out around dismissals for nought and one in his six previous matches.

From BBC ● Aug. 11, 2026

Hours before Clayton's confirmation vote, Pulte boasted that a fifth round of dismissals would bring staffing reductions at the intelligence coordinating body to about 30 percent within weeks.

From Barron's ● Jul. 28, 2026

The program’s star correspondent Scott Pelley was fired last month after he confronted management over the dismissals of executive producer Tanya Simon and his on-air colleagues Sharyn Alfonsi and Cecilia Vega.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 1, 2026

Indeed, there is a long precedent for high-level dismissals during wartime.

From Salon ● May 1, 2026

Who knows how many quarrels, false accusations, unnecessary dismissals, how many promising careers cut short can be attributed to a butler's slovenliness at the stage of drawing up the staff plan?

From "The Remains of the Day" by Kazuo Ishiguro