disorient
Americanverb (used with object)
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disorients,
present (3rd person singular)
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disoriented,
past participle, past
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disorienting
present participle
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to cause to lose one's way.
The strange streets disoriented him.
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to confuse by removing or obscuring something that has guided a person, group, or culture, as customs, moral standards, etc..
Society has been disoriented by changing values.
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Psychiatry. to cause to lose perception of time, place, or one's personal identity.
Other Word Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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disorientsimple
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disorientssimple
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have disorientedperfect
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has disorientedperfect
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am disorientingprogressive
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are disorientingprogressive
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is disorientingprogressive
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have been disorientingperfect progressive
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has been disorientingperfect progressive
Past
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disorientedsimple
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had disorientedperfect
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was disorientingprogressive
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were disorientingprogressive
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had been disorientingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of disorient
1645–55; < French désorienter, equivalent to dés- dis- 1 + orienter to orient
Explanation
To disorient is to confuse or cause to lose all sense of direction. Stepping off an airplane halfway around the world in the middle of the night will disorient even the most experienced traveler. Disorient comes from the French désorienter, which means "to lose one's bearings" but literally translates to "to turn from the east." The Latin root is orientem, "the part of the sky where the sun rises." When we orient ourselves, we get our bearings, figuring out which direction we're facing. It disorients you to lose track of where you are, or to feel befuddled or confused: "That medicine always disorients my cat, making him stumble around bumping into things"
Vocabulary lists containing disorient
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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:
To add a touch of mystery, contestants will travel and sleep on a coach with blacked-out windows to disorient them.
From BBC ● Jul. 21, 2025
He uses overhead shots and camera angles and plays with focus to displace or disorient viewers.
From Salon ● Dec. 8, 2023
The story uses sporadic live-action scenes to unnerve and disorient players and make them question whether they can really trust what they’re seeing.
From Washington Times ● Nov. 25, 2023
Electric lights can disorient them, causing turtles to head the wrong way on the beach instead of following light from the moon and stars.
From Seattle Times ● Nov. 23, 2023
Here on earth, orienting yourself depends on the feeling you get from the pull of gravity, plus your vision. just being blindfolded is enough to disorient some people.
From The Flying Saucers are Real by Donald E. (Donald Edward) Keyhoe
Some moments play out in too many close-ups, suffocating the scene; an occasional edit inadvertently disorients our sense of place.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Dec. 11, 2025
The narration further disorients us by alternating between Marissa’s third-person and Avery’s first-person perspectives.
From New York Times ● Mar. 2, 2022
But the more likely problem is that social media presents a feed or timeline of content that disorients its consumers and unmoors them from reality.
From Scientific American ● Jun. 10, 2020
The best historical fiction disorients us by demonstrating the uncanny nature of the past — a world like and not like ours, woven through with strands of ancient DNA.
From Washington Post ● Apr. 21, 2020
The beauty disorients many of the players, because when the gong sounds, most of them seem like they’re trying to wake from a dream.
From "Catching Fire" by Suzanne Collins
Prior to going missing Smyth had contacted rescuers from Tiganesti to say he was disoriented and physically exhausted.
From BBC ● Aug. 15, 2026
Certainly, I felt a bit like Odysseus as I crept — drained, disoriented and trailing popcorn crumbs like Ithican sand — out into the sun.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 24, 2026
Mary is disoriented and desperate, and the mere sight of her assures Sam that whatever favor Mary asks for, Sam can attach strings to.
From Salon ● Apr. 24, 2026
“I was disoriented at first. It’s hard to step out of that go-go mentality.”
From MarketWatch ● Apr. 22, 2026
Two more hallways follow; l am so disoriented I could never find my way hack.
From "Insurgent" by Veronica Roth
“When everyday tasks suddenly require help, or take three times as long because of language or unfamiliar systems, it can feel disorienting in a way that catches people off guard.”
From Salon ● Jul. 11, 2026
Finding solutions to math problems at an accelerating pace this way is exciting, if a bit disorienting.
From Slate ● Jun. 22, 2026
Maybe it’s just disorienting because no one anticipated gawking at his torso inside the historic downtown Los Angeles venue founded by Hollywood legends Charlie Chaplin, Mary Pickford, Douglas Fairbanks and D.W.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 11, 2026
Being displaced from your home is inconvenient and disorienting.
From MarketWatch ● May 5, 2026
It was as if his memory loss had stolen a chunk of his language—it was disorienting.
From "The Maze Runner" by James Dashner
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.
