dismissal
Americannoun
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dismissals
plural
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an act or instance of dismissing.
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the state of being dismissed.
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a spoken or written order of discharge from employment, service, enrollment, etc.
noun
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an official notice of discharge from employment or service
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the act of dismissing or the condition of being dismissed
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of dismissal
Explanation
The act of sending someone away or firing them is dismissal. Your friend's dismissal from the pizza place where he kept dropping the dough on the floor means he's looking for a new job — preferably not in food service. When a school bell rings at the end of the day, signaling that students can leave, that's one kind of dismissal. Bad news from a boss that the company is laying you off is also a dismissal, and when a judge rules that a trial is over and the case has been dropped, it's yet another kind of dismissal. The word comes from dismiss, "send away," from the Latin root dimittere, "send different ways" or "break up."
Vocabulary lists containing dismissal
List 3
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List 6
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Legal Lingo, List 3
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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:
The letters of dismissal will cover every member of non-teaching staff on the council's books, including chief executive Susanne Millar, nursery staff and refuse collectors.
From BBC ● Sep. 24, 2026
He will then be able to petition to reduce the felonies to misdemeanors and seek dismissal of the charges.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 22, 2026
That’s how I felt about Oregon’s 84-0 dismissal of Portland State this past weekend.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 21, 2026
The litigation began in 2024 and has already survived one previous dismissal.
From Salon ● Sep. 19, 2026
When the dismissal bell rings, I make my way to Sam’s locker before I leave.
From "Piecing Me Together" by Renée Watson
This has played into the fall-out from the High Court case and the calls for resignations or dismissals.
From BBC ● Aug. 29, 2026
Note that the score of 0 here includes all instances of a batter coming to bat including dismissals and not outs.
From BBC ● Aug. 25, 2026
Additionally, hearing of the institution’s employee strikes, dismissals and downsizing due to lower enrollments, I respectfully declined.
From Salon ● Aug. 24, 2026
The mayor said the dismissals reflected his “commitment to a new era.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 12, 2026
In fact, I was looking out over the lawn to where the mist was thickening down around the poplar trees planted along the cart-track, when I finally introduced the topic of the previous year's dismissals.
From "The Remains of the Day" by Kazuo Ishiguro
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.
