dissatisfaction
Americannoun
-
dissatisfactions
plural
-
the state or attitude of not being satisfied; discontent; displeasure.
- Synonyms:
- uneasiness, disapproval, disappointment
-
a particular cause or feeling of displeasure or disappointment.
many dissatisfactions with the plan.
noun
Synonym Usage
Dissatisfaction, discontent, displeasure imply a sense of dislike for, or unhappiness in, one's surroundings. Dissatisfaction results from contemplating what falls short of one's wishes or expectations: dissatisfaction with the results of an afternoon's work. Discontent is a sense of lack and a general feeling of uneasy dislike for the conditions of one's life: feeling a continual vague discontent. Displeasure suggests a certain amount of anger as well as dissatisfaction: displeasure at being kept waiting.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of dissatisfaction
First recorded in 1630–40; dis- 1 + satisfaction
Explanation
When you're unhappy, disappointed, or annoyed about something, you feel a sense of dissatisfaction. Your dissatisfaction with your boring French class might inspire you to switch to beginning Mandarin. An entire country's dissatisfaction with their government can lead to a new administration being voted in, or in the case of extreme dissatisfaction, a revolution. Your dissatisfaction with the pasta dish you ordered might simply make you ask for a hamburger instead. Dissatisfaction adds the dis-, or "lack of," prefix to satisfaction, which originally referred to "an act by a priest to atone for sin," but came to mean "contentment" by the 14th century.
Vocabulary lists containing dissatisfaction
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:
Loneliness, by contrast, describes a person's subjective dissatisfaction with the quality of their relationships, regardless of how many social interactions they actually have.
From Science Daily ● Oct. 10, 2026
Social isolation is an objective measure of the quantity of social connection in behavior, while loneliness is a subjective measure of a person’s emotional dissatisfaction with the quality of their relationships.
From MarketWatch ● Oct. 6, 2026
Much of this dissatisfaction stems from a steep rise in global energy prices and the knock-on effects on other goods.
From BBC ● Sep. 14, 2026
Nicastro also placed cats in unfamiliar environments, hoping to get meows of dissatisfaction.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 9, 2026
Like a story, a piece of music can come to an end by simply stopping, but most listeners will react to such abruptness with dissatisfaction: the story or music simply "stopped" instead of "ending" properly.
From "Understanding Basic Music Theory" by Catherine Schmidt-Jones and Russel Jones
But “The Book of Ayn” is rife with dissatisfactions — to its credit — and with self-aware jokes and serious questions about self-awareness.
From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 14, 2023
It is not surprising, according to Vásquez, because “places in conflict produce fiction: Fiction is where all the anxieties and discontent, the dissatisfactions and fears of a society, filter down.”
From New York Times ● Jul. 22, 2021
These interesting and extremely human but abstract dissatisfactions suffer by dint of the forced comparison to crappy conditions real people really lived with during the pandemic.
From Slate ● Jun. 23, 2021
The Harvard economics professor Ken Rogoff points out that many of the dissatisfactions it seeks to address would be more effectively achieved by a rigorous assault on monopolies than a take-down of the free market.
From The Guardian ● Aug. 19, 2018
Marry then, you shall have a thousand vexations, a thousand torments, a thousand dissatisfactions, a thousand plagues; and in a word, a thousand sort of repentings, which will accompany you to your Grave.
From The Ten Pleasures of Marriage and the Second Part, The Confession of the New Married Couple by A. Marsh
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Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
