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dissociative

American  
[di-soh-see-uht-iv, di-soh-shee-ayt-iv, -suht-iv] / dɪˈsoʊ si ət ɪv, dɪˈsoʊ ʃiˌeɪt ɪv, -sət ɪv /

adjective

  1. Psychiatry. relating to or exhibiting a condition in which a group of mental processes is split off from the main body of consciousness, as in amnesia or certain forms of hysteria.

  2. Physical Chemistry. relating to, tending toward, or exhibiting the reversible resolution or decomposition of a complex substance into simpler components.

  3. relating to a disjunction or separation between two or more things.


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:

Conditions like dissociative identity disorder may dictate multiple support animals, and the growth in pet psychologists portends a burgeoning trend of emotionally affected pets needing their own support animals.

From The Wall Street Journal May 29, 2026

Dodd was later diagnosed with schizophrenia and dissociative identity disorder, and asked his friend Lockhart, a medical anthropologist, to help him figure out what brought him to his lowest moment.

From Los Angeles Times May 12, 2026

Now you are living in a world that is constantly dissociative thanks to social media.

From Los Angeles Times Nov. 24, 2025

One of the main protagonists in “The Dark Tower” series, Susannah Dean, is a Black woman with dissociative identity disorder.

From Salon Nov. 9, 2025

Very few had taken to agriculture, for which, indeed, the dry soil was seldom fitted, and the half-nomadic life of stock-farmers, each pasturing his cattle over great tracts of country, confirmed their dissociative instincts.

From Impressions of South Africa by James Bryce, Viscount Bryce

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