dissatisfaction
Americannoun
-
dissatisfactions
plural
-
the state or attitude of not being satisfied; discontent; displeasure.
- Synonyms:
- uneasiness, disapproval, disappointment
-
a particular cause or feeling of displeasure or disappointment.
many dissatisfactions with the plan.
noun
Synonym Usage
Dissatisfaction, discontent, displeasure imply a sense of dislike for, or unhappiness in, one's surroundings. Dissatisfaction results from contemplating what falls short of one's wishes or expectations: dissatisfaction with the results of an afternoon's work. Discontent is a sense of lack and a general feeling of uneasy dislike for the conditions of one's life: feeling a continual vague discontent. Displeasure suggests a certain amount of anger as well as dissatisfaction: displeasure at being kept waiting.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of dissatisfaction
First recorded in 1630–40; dis- 1 + satisfaction
Explanation
When you're unhappy, disappointed, or annoyed about something, you feel a sense of dissatisfaction. Your dissatisfaction with your boring French class might inspire you to switch to beginning Mandarin. An entire country's dissatisfaction with their government can lead to a new administration being voted in, or in the case of extreme dissatisfaction, a revolution. Your dissatisfaction with the pasta dish you ordered might simply make you ask for a hamburger instead. Dissatisfaction adds the dis-, or "lack of," prefix to satisfaction, which originally referred to "an act by a priest to atone for sin," but came to mean "contentment" by the 14th century.
Vocabulary lists containing dissatisfaction
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:
“The key question is what will matter more during the campaign: whether public dissatisfaction weakens the government or helps it.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 8, 2026
Social isolation is an objective measure of the quantity of social connection in behavior, while loneliness is a subjective measure of a person’s emotional dissatisfaction with the quality of their relationships.
From MarketWatch ● Oct. 6, 2026
Despite the economy's apparent solid performance, Brazilians have shown considerable dissatisfaction with their current living conditions.
From BBC ● Oct. 5, 2026
"The impact on the American consumer has gone up tremendously," he said, adding that there was growing dissatisfaction in the rural, normally Republican area of Virginia where he lives.
From Barron's ● Aug. 25, 2026
But shortly afterward, she expressed her dissatisfaction about the way the home was being conducted.
From "Harriet Tubman: Conductor on the Underground Railroad" by Ann Petry
But “The Book of Ayn” is rife with dissatisfactions — to its credit — and with self-aware jokes and serious questions about self-awareness.
From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 14, 2023
It is not surprising, according to Vásquez, because “places in conflict produce fiction: Fiction is where all the anxieties and discontent, the dissatisfactions and fears of a society, filter down.”
From New York Times ● Jul. 22, 2021
These interesting and extremely human but abstract dissatisfactions suffer by dint of the forced comparison to crappy conditions real people really lived with during the pandemic.
From Slate ● Jun. 23, 2021
Haemin is especially eloquent on life’s smaller dissatisfactions, and how they can sometimes be trickier to deal with than the bigger, more dramatic ones.
From The Guardian ● Jan. 12, 2019
Why must he come to her with his seething and suffering and dissatisfactions?
From The Rainbow by D. H. (David Herbert) Lawrence
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.
