dysfunctional
Americanadjective
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not performing normally, as an organ or structure of the body; malfunctioning.
-
having a malfunctioning part or element.
It is hard to get bills through a dysfunctional congress.
-
behaving or acting outside social norms.
All the siblings in their extremely dysfunctional family lost contact as adults.
adjective
-
med (of an organ or part) not functioning normally
-
(esp of a family) characterized by a breakdown of normal or beneficial relationships between members of the group
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of dysfunctional
First recorded in 1910–15; dysfunction ( def. ) + -al 1 ( def. )
Explanation
Dysfunctional describes something that doesn't work the way it should. If you know all the printers at the school computer lab are dysfunctional, it's better to print your book report at home. Dys- means "bad," and function means "proper purpose," so when something's working badly, it's dysfunctional. For example, your toaster that always burns the toast is dysfunctional. The word dysfunctional is often used to describe relationships or even whole families whose ways of relating to one another are mentally harmful or are so complicated that nothing feels easy or natural about them.
Vocabulary lists containing dysfunctional
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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.
Running a pharmaceutical company under our dysfunctional system is a high-wire act that requires balancing the high-risk, high-cost business of drug discovery against the dubious math of drug pricing.
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 13, 2026
“Your bank account can’t protect you if you are breathing polluted air or rely on a dysfunctional health care system.”
From Salon ● Aug. 11, 2026
“It’s opening up this conversation about the fragility and how dysfunctional this healthcare system is and how hard it is for these doctors and healthcare workers to navigate their way through it,” Hatosy adds.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 5, 2026
Onigbinde describes it as "a symptom of the dysfunctional budgeting process".
From BBC ● Jul. 11, 2026
What could be dysfunctional about a mother so spiteful that she intentionally undercooks her husband’s chicken, and a father so narcissistic he gets a face-lift at forty?
From "Dry" by Neal Shusterman and Jarrod Shusterman
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.
