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.
When an anthill is disturbed, the response comes from the colony acting together rather than from any individual ant.
From Science Daily • Jul. 8, 2026
"I was very disturbed by it for a couple of days. They're historical."
From BBC • Jun. 26, 2026
The calling function disturbed us both, the text prompts were too limited and arbitrary, and overall, the device made me realize that our relationship probably didn’t need any technological intervention at all.
From Slate • Jun. 20, 2026
The American vision tended to be forward-looking; the Gothic novel, however, was a form disturbed by ghosts from the past.
From The Wall Street Journal • Jun. 19, 2026
And it disturbed me even more when he didn’t understand even after both Mama and Daddy had tried to teach them to him.
From "Reaching for the Moon" by Katherine Johnson
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.
