disquietude
Americannoun
noun
Etymology
Origin of disquietude
Explanation
Sometimes, maybe for no reason at all, you might become agitated with a feeling of restless agitation. This feeling is a sense of disquietude, an edgy feeling that something in your universe is out of order. If you break down the word disquietude you come to its root word, quiet, which means still or noiseless. The dis- prefix means "not," giving it the opposite meaning, and the ending -tude makes it a state of being. So the word literally means "state of being unquiet." For example, it was said in the Washington Post that the 19th-20th-century artist Edward Hopper's paintings present a picture of the disquietude, or uneasiness, of American life.
Vocabulary lists containing disquietude
Into the Wild
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The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
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Bless Me, Ultima
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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.
The suggestion of disquietude among donors met a vehement response from a lawyer who claimed to be representing a “large group of significant donors to Project Veritas.”
From Washington Post • Feb. 20, 2023
But it is still worth thinking seriously about his stated disquietude, because no justice expressed the actual stakes of the case more bluntly.
From Slate • Apr. 25, 2022
But in times when I feel swells of disquietude, I don’t try to suppress them.
From New York Times • Oct. 5, 2021
In a pandemic defined by widespread disquietude and legions of first-time bakers soothing their angst by muddling through banana bread recipes, the show should be, and has been, both balm and inspiration.
From Salon • Nov. 27, 2020
Eventually I spoke of my lingering disquietude to Kiev Schoening, whose home was not far from mine.
From "Into Thin Air" by Jon Krakauer
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.
