discordance
Americannoun
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a discordant state; disagreement; discord.
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an instance of this.
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Geology. lack of parallelism between adjacent strata, as in an angular unconformity.
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(in genetic studies) the degree of dissimilarity in a pair of twins with respect to the presence or absence of a disease or trait.
noun
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geology an arrangement of rock strata in which the older underlying ones dip at a different angle from the younger overlying ones; unconformity
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lack of agreement or consonance
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variants of discord
Etymology
Origin of discordance
1300–50; Middle English < Anglo-French discordaunce, descordance; see discord, -ance
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.
The idea that anyone, even Infiniti’s plucky proto-guerilla, is special in a perpetual war against oppression is a minor discordance in the script, along with a small character’s moral turn that’s a bit too convenient.
From Los Angeles Times • Sep. 24, 2025
Testing for apoB rather than LDL-C could identify people who are at high risk due to this discordance.
From Seattle Times • Jan. 8, 2024
Yehoshua captured the discordance of living in a land fraught with moral and political conundrums.
From New York Times • Jun. 16, 2022
Usually that discordance is taken to signal a psychological, rather than physical, issue.
From Slate • Apr. 25, 2021
I pounded my unease into the keys, hoping the discordance would drive him away, but he held on.
From "When I Was Puerto Rican" by Esmeralda Santiago
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.
