- past participle of disappoint.
- past tense form of disappoint.
disappointed
Americanadjective
-
depressed or discouraged by the failure of one's hopes or expectations.
a disappointed suitor.
-
Obsolete. inadequately appointed; ill-equipped.
adjective
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of disappointed
First recorded in 1545–55; disappoint + -ed 2
Explanation
Disappointed means discouraged or sad because what you hoped for didn't happen. If you write a fan letter to your favorite actress hoping for a personal reply, you're likely to be disappointed. The original French root of disappointed is desappointer, which has one meaning that's basically "to fail to keep an appointment." So you might imagine the word disappointed like this: you made an appointment with a friend, but he blew it off. What could leave you more disappointed than that?
Vocabulary lists containing disappointed
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"My Favorite Chaperone," Vocabulary from the short story
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Hooked on a Feeling, List 1
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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.
Shreeshan Venkatesh of the Climate Action Network said the group was "deeply disappointed" by the failure.
From Barron's ● Oct. 16, 2026
“The risk is: We’re excited, it doesn’t lift productivity immediately. We’re disappointed, we pull out. And then it becomes our problem.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 16, 2026
Georgieva joked Warsh disappointed half, or more, of the audience.
From MarketWatch ● Oct. 16, 2026
Stella said he was "disappointed" more than anything, pointing out that this was far from the first conversation he had had with the drivers on the need to put the team's interests first.
From BBC ● Oct. 10, 2026
“I don’t have it nailed yet, but that’s not it. I have to tell someone something, and I know they’ll be really disappointed in me.”
From "Split the Sky" by Marie Arnold
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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.
