disturbing
Americanadjective
adjective
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of disturbing
Explanation
When something really worries or upsets you, you can describe it as disturbing. War photography is usually disturbing. It can be disturbing to see people be hurt, or a child going hungry: it troubles the person who is witnessing such difficulties. Some strange things are also often described as disturbing, such as bizarre clown art or people who walk around dressed in animal costumes. If it bothers and distresses you, it's disturbing. The Latin root, disturbare, combines dis, "completely," with turbare, "to disorder."
Vocabulary lists containing disturbing
May the 4th Be With You: Star Wars Words
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Mockingbird
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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.
All of which is disturbing enough, if not surprising.
From Slate ● Aug. 20, 2026
We speak to British families who have made disturbing discoveries about their IVF treatment in northern Cyprus.
From BBC ● Aug. 18, 2026
“We were able to approach the bird quietly, without disturbing it,” Kanowa said, attributing the win to the super-stealthy electric truck she was driving.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 16, 2026
The findings suggest that some genetic mutations may cause disease not only by changing individual genetic instructions, but also by disturbing the physical arrangement of the genome itself.
From Science Daily ● Aug. 13, 2026
It was kind of disturbing, us just sitting there next to each other, like nothing ever happened between me and him just a while ago.
From "We Were Here" by Matt De La Peña
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.
