- present participle of disappoint.
disappointing
Americanadjective
adjective
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of disappointing
First recorded in 1520–30; disappoint + -ing 2
Explanation
Something that's disappointing isn't what you'd hoped for. A disappointing baseball season usually means that your favorite team lost a lot of games. When the candidate you voted for loses, it's a disappointing election result, and a disappointing grade in your math class is lower than what you hoped or expected it would be. Disappointing comes from the verb disappoint, which means "frustrate expectations," but had an earlier definition of "remove from appointed office." The modern sense of disappoint and disappointing comes from "fail to keep an appointment."
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.
Paid posts from food bloggers "who sing high praises about shops or destinations" have also drawn complaints when their recommendations are disappointing.
From Barron's ● Jul. 13, 2026
It's a nice marriage between the two, albeit disappointing that some things were not recreated - such as the ability to wield your assassin's hidden blades in combat.
From BBC ● Jul. 11, 2026
ANZ said online sales during this year’s 618 shopping festival were disappointing.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 10, 2026
Another in a series of disappointing releases, “Bridges to Babylon” has one great song, “Saint of Me,” and lots of filler.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 10, 2026
This barrier was disappointing news to the physics world, but it was the beginning of a new branch of physics: thermodynamics.
From "Zero: The Biography of a Dangerous Idea" by Charles Seife
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.
