disappointment
noun
the act or fact of disappointing.
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disappointment
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Disappointment
DisappointmentnounCape Disappointment, a cape in southwestern Washington State, projecting into the Pacific Ocean on the north of the mouth of the Columbia River.
disappointment
1 American
[dis-uh-point-muhnt]
/ ˌdɪs əˈpɔɪnt mənt /
noun
-
disappointments
plural
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the act or fact of disappointing.
All of his efforts only led to the disappointment of his supporters.
- Synonyms:
- frustration, defeat, failure
-
the state or feeling of being disappointed.
Her disappointment was very great when she didn't get the job.
-
a person or thing that disappoints.
The play was a disappointment.
Disappointment
2
American
[dis-uh-point-muhnt]
/ ˌdɪs əˈpɔɪnt mənt /
noun
disappointment
British
/ ˌdɪsəˈpɔɪntmənt /
noun
-
the act of disappointing or the state of being disappointed
-
a person, thing, or state of affairs that disappoints
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of disappointment
First recorded in 1605–15; disappoint + -ment
Explanation
A disappointment is what happens when things don't go your way. That sad, frustrated feeling of loss that follows? It's also called disappointment. The noun disappointment comes from the Middle French word disappointer, meaning “undo the appointment,” or “remove from office.” It is true that a friend canceling your plans or losing your job is a disappointment, but today disappointment can describe anything that crushes your hopes, ruins your day, or otherwise lets you down.
Vocabulary lists containing disappointment
Cormac McCarthy's "The Road"
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-ment
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"Pass It On," "If There Be Pain," and "Sonnet 30"
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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:
Former Chief Executive Ynon Kreiz, who spearheaded a campaign to upgrade earnings from Mattel’s intellectual properties, just stepped down amid investor disappointment.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 9, 2026
Given expectations for some cutbacks in long-dated issuance, no changes could set the market up for disappointment in November, Reid at Mackenzie said.
From MarketWatch ● Oct. 9, 2026
John’s and Adelaide’s lives follow a predetermined “road from hope to fantasy to disappointment and despair.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 6, 2026
For Connor, it is another England disappointment to follow his controversial omission from the squad for last autumn's home series against Australia.
From BBC ● Oct. 5, 2026
I clenched my stomach in a knot, waiting for all the disappointment.
From Absolutely Almost by Lisa Graff
Disappointment from Broadcom’s earnings report Wednesday evening triggered the first wave of AI stock selling on Thursday, but the slide spilled over into early morning trading today.
From Barron's ● Jun. 5, 2026
Disappointment followed at the 2020 Tokyo Games which she later described as the "biggest low" of her career.
From BBC ● Mar. 7, 2025
Disappointment is a familiar feeling when it comes to Find a Grave.
From Slate ● Oct. 24, 2024
All was going according to plan until they approached Disappointment Cleaver.
From Seattle Times ● Aug. 25, 2023
I don’t want to see what I’m afraid will be there: Disappointment.
From "King and the Dragonflies" by Kacen Callender
However, following several disappointments from Novo, the market wants to see concrete clinical and commercial evidence, Jyske Bank adds.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 22, 2026
“I love my mountain of disappointments, I do, but I’m human and my mountain is starting to sting more than it used to,” Krumholtz said.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 19, 2026
Ten years later, Mourinho said his failure to sign Gerrard was one of his greatest transfer disappointments.
From BBC ● Aug. 2, 2026
England's Jazmin Sawyers was finally able to put previous disappointments at major championships behind her by winning the women's long jump at the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow.
From BBC ● Aug. 1, 2026
As an organizer working in urban communities, Barack had told me, he’d contended most often with a deep weariness in people—especially black people—a cynicism bred from a thousand small disappointments over time.
From "Becoming" by Michelle Obama
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.
