disorder
Americannoun
-
disorders
plural
-
lack of order or regular arrangement; confusion.
Your room is in utter disorder.
- Synonyms:
- clutter, litter, jumble, disarray, disorderliness
-
an irregularity.
a disorder in legal proceedings.
-
breach of order; disorderly conduct; public disturbance.
- Synonyms:
- turbulence, riot
-
a disturbance in physical or mental health or functions; malady or dysfunction.
a mild stomach disorder.
verb (used with object)
-
disorders,
present (3rd person singular)
-
disordered,
past participle, past
-
disordering
present participle
-
to destroy the order or regular arrangement of; disarrange.
- Synonyms:
- disorganize, disarray
-
to derange the physical or mental health or functions of.
noun
-
a lack of order; disarray; confusion
-
a disturbance of public order or peace
-
an upset of health; ailment
-
a deviation from the normal system or order
verb
-
to upset the order of; disarrange; muddle
-
to disturb the health or mind of
Synonym Usage
Disorder, brawl, disturbance, uproar are disruptions or interruptions of a peaceful situation. Disorder refers to civil unrest or to any scene in which there is confusion or fighting: The police went to the scene of the disorder. A brawl is a noisy, unseemly quarrel, usually in a public place: a tavern brawl. A disturbance is disorder of a size as to inconvenience people: to cause a disturbance. An uproar is a tumult, a bustle and clamor of many voices, often because of a disturbance: a mighty uproar.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
disordersimple
-
disorderssimple
-
have disorderedperfect
-
has disorderedperfect
-
am disorderingprogressive
-
are disorderingprogressive
-
is disorderingprogressive
-
have been disorderingperfect progressive
-
has been disorderingperfect progressive
Past
-
disorderedsimple
-
had disorderedperfect
-
was disorderingprogressive
-
were disorderingprogressive
-
had been disorderingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of disorder
Explanation
Disorder is a lack of order — in other words, chaos, clutter, and general disarray. If everyone in your class is yelling and throwing things, there's no order: there's disorder. If all the library books are out of order and thrown sloppily on the shelf, that's disorder, too. If you mess or mix something up, you're disordering it. Many medical conditions and diseases are also called disorders, like post-traumatic stress disorder. Whenever there's disorder, something is wrong or out of whack.
Vocabulary lists containing disorder
Mayhem! Chaos! Pandemonium!
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This Week in Words: Current Events Vocab for October 15–October 21, 2022
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Health and Healthcare, List 2
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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:
Their application argues that the decision by the Parades Commission -- the independent body regulating contentious marches -- misrepresented police evidence about the risk of disorder.
From Barron's ● Oct. 5, 2026
Payne, from Exeter, says she stopped any form of public speaking after developing a severe anxiety disorder and experiencing panic attacks.
From BBC ● Oct. 5, 2026
In legal filings before her execution date, Pike’s attorneys argued that because of a blood disorder, using pentobarbital exacerbated her risk of developing the condition.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 3, 2026
All had either a blood disorder with the potential to become cancerous or a low-risk form of blood cancer.
From Science Daily ● Oct. 3, 2026
He’d been the first investor to diagnose the disorder in the American financial system in early 2003: the extension of credit by instrument.
From "The Big Short" by Michael Lewis
OpenAI announced ChatGPT for Teens in August, promising “stronger built-in safety protections” for users under 18, including limits on discussions around suicide, eating disorders, violence and sexual content.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 7, 2026
The mental-health toll was more severe, with women living roughly 3.7 fewer years free of mental disorders, and men living about 5.8 fewer years without such problems, the study found.
From MarketWatch ● Oct. 6, 2026
They have also been able to reveal neural circuits governing specific memories, feelings and behaviors relevant for neurological and psychiatric disorders.
From Barron's ● Oct. 6, 2026
People with these disorders think and act differently to others and, among other things:
From BBC ● Oct. 3, 2026
He's not even a particularly interesting person, unless he's judged by his organizational disorders.
From "Counting by 7s" by Holly Goldberg Sloan
Bossy’s direction raises the clamorous volume instead of sorting out the disordered structure or digging into the unexamined silences.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 23, 2026
Rather than understanding dissociation as a symptom of disordered eating, researchers increasingly consider how it may both emerge from and help maintain these patterns.
From Slate ● Sep. 23, 2026
Dr Neil Stanley, sleep expert and author of the book How to Sleep Well, argues that gamifying sleep is creating more disordered sleeping.
From BBC ● Sep. 3, 2026
"Treating the light classically makes it much easier to define which part of the energy can be used to perform work and which part is disordered heat," says Janovitch.
From Science Daily ● Aug. 19, 2026
Mr. Gitney and Mr. Sharpe sat across from us, clearly disordered by an excitation of nerves almost as extreme as my own.
From "The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation, Volume I: The Pox Party" by M.T. Anderson
The researchers then expose the cilia to a damped, alternating magnetic field which has the effect of disordering the magnetization of the microparticles.
From Science Daily ● Apr. 24, 2024
The economic and social troubles of 1993 rippled through my community, as these things do, disordering the trajectories of lives and industries to the ruin of some.
From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 28, 2021
But there will be many pairs of events that are causally related, that will end up far from each other—thus disordering space and locality.
From Scientific American ● Apr. 4, 2019
Furthermore, disordering the ligand distribution drastically increases adhesion growth, but reduces the rigidity threshold for adhesion collapse.
From Nature ● Dec. 5, 2017
But the vapour of a limekiln would come between me and them, disordering them all, and it was through the vapour at last that I saw two men looking at me.
From "Great Expectations" by Charles Dickens
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.
