Showing results for "disheartening"

• present participle of dishearten.

disheartening

American  

[dis-hahr-tn-ing] / dɪsˈhɑr tn ɪŋ /

adjective

1. depressing a person’s hope, courage, or spirits; discouraging.

   It's been disheartening to see some of her old habits and fears returning, even though they aren't as bad as when she was much younger.

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Other Word Forms

• dishearteningly
  adverb

Etymology

Origin of disheartening

dishearten ( def. ) + -ing ² ( def. )

Explanation

Something disheartening causes you to lose your confidence or enthusiasm. It's disheartening when your basketball team loses four games in a row. Breaking disheartening down to its parts, you can see the dis- prefix, meaning "not" or "take away," and the figurative heart, "good feelings or courage." While a heartening message from your pen pal cheers you up, anything disheartening does the opposite. A disheartening grade on your big English paper brings you down, and disheartening news can make your whole family feel a little depressed. If it's disheartening, it's a bummer.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

disheartening

“That’s really kind of disheartening — that we’ve tried our best to mitigate fires ... yet fires are destroying more homes,” said Amanda Carlson, a research scientist with the U.S.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 1, 2026

For the millions of Burmese who have risked their lives and left their homes to oppose military rule, these are disheartening times.

From BBC ● Jul. 30, 2026

After decades of looking forward to the freedom of a less stressful lifestyle, it is disheartening to be faced with difficult choices when income and savings fall short.

From MarketWatch ● Jul. 29, 2026

We’ll see several startling upsets in this round that won’t end up mattering, along with a disheartening number of 0-0 and 1-1 draws.

From Salon ● Jun. 11, 2026

At the southern end of the site, however, the men made a disheartening discovery.

From "The Devil in the White City" by Erik Larson

Related Words

• alarming
• astounding
• awful
• dire
• dreadful
• frightening
• frightful
• ghastly
• harrowing
• hideous
• horrible
• horrific
• shocking
• terrible
• terrifying