disturbed
Americanadjective
-
marked by symptoms of mental illness.
a disturbed personality.
-
agitated or distressed; disrupted.
disturbed seas; a disturbed situation.
noun
adjective
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of disturbed
Explanation
If something is disturbed, it's been moved or changed — it's not positioned or functioning the way it usually does. Traveling across the globe gives many people disturbed sleep patterns. If your younger brother has been snooping in your room, the only evidence might be the disturbed items on your desk — maybe he rifled through your diary and left it in a different spot. When people are described as disturbed, it means they're troubled emotionally. The word comes from the Latin disturbare, "throw into disorder," and its root turba, "turmoil."
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.
Halzen's great leap was to use ice instead -- unlike liquid water, it isn't disturbed by living creatures, and its darkness is constant at great depth.
From Barron's ● Oct. 6, 2026
Olah was disturbed after reading a copy of “Magnifica humanitas” and suggested pulling Anthropic out of the event, although he ultimately attended.
From MarketWatch ● Oct. 2, 2026
They gently disturbed the entire atomic chain by changing the lasers at a particular frequency and then measured how strongly the atoms responded.
From Science Daily ● Oct. 1, 2026
Rabbi Hirschy Zarchi of Harvard Chabad said Zimmer was disturbed by then-Harvard President Claudine Gay’s response to the attacks.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 11, 2026
Nhamo was too disturbed to pay much attention, but gradually she began to sense that something was very wrong.
From "A Girl Named Disaster" by Nancy Farmer
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.
