perturb
Americanverb (used with object)
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to disturb or disquiet greatly in mind; agitate.
I can see how such a massive change in your routine would perturb you.
- Antonyms:
- pacify
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to throw into great disorder.
Huge construction projects can take years to finish, and meanwhile, can greatly perturb the neighborhood.
- Synonyms:
- muddle, disarrange, confuse
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Astronomy. to cause perturbation in the orbit of (a celestial body).
verb
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to disturb the composure of; trouble
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to throw into disorder
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physics astronomy to cause (a planet, electron, etc) to undergo a perturbation
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
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perturbabilitynoun
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perturbatornoun
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perturbernoun
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perturbmentnoun
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nonperturbableadjective
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nonperturbingadjective
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perturbableadjective
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perturbatiousadjective
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perturbingadjective
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unperturbableadjective
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unperturbingadjective
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perturbablyadverb
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perturbinglyadverb
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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perturbsimple
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perturbssimple
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have perturbedperfect
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has perturbedperfect
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am perturbingprogressive
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are perturbingprogressive
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is perturbingprogressive
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have been perturbingperfect progressive
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has been perturbingperfect progressive
Past
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perturbedsimple
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had perturbedperfect
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was perturbingprogressive
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were perturbingprogressive
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had been perturbingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of perturb
First recorded in 1325–75; Middle English perturben (from Old French perturber ), from Latin perturbāre “to throw into confusion,” from per- per- + turbāre “to agitate, confuse” ( see turbid)
Explanation
To perturb is to bug or bother someone by confusing them or throwing them off balance. You can try, but it's almost impossible to perturb the guards outside Buckingham Palace. If you're having trouble getting used to the word perturb, you're in luck! It's similar in meaning to the verb "disturb." That's right, to perturb is to disturb, but in a way that suggests you're throwing it off its usual path or routine. The movie Born Free truly perturbed widespread views about animals—people suddenly started seeing them as individuals. If you stare at a person you don't know, it won't be long before you perturb them.
Vocabulary lists containing perturb
Grade 9, List 5
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The God of Small Things
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Be More Chill
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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.
See Examples For:
"This technology lets us perturb hundreds to thousands of genes in parallel and then measure the detailed molecular changes in each individual cell," says Cao.
From Science Daily ● May 21, 2026
Some possible treatments have looked to block the origin of the itch to relieve the sensation, Gualdani said, “but it seems if we perturb this pathway, we also perturb eventual itch relief.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 21, 2026
Maybe overactive immune cells continue to perturb the nervous system and nearby blood vessels.
From Scientific American ● Feb. 14, 2023
"There was no physical violence or rise in thefts, but they perturb people who are from here," he says, adding: "From now on it's zero tolerance."
From BBC ● Mar. 28, 2022
The news didn’t perturb him as much as excite his curiosity.
From "The God of Small Things" by Arundhati Roy
The main problem with room temperature is thermal noise, which perturbs delicate quantum dynamics.
From Science Daily ● Feb. 14, 2024
Perhaps this marks the beginning of a pop culture reconsideration of America’s role in the war, adding nuance that perturbs the accepted heroic narrative.
From Seattle Times ● Dec. 20, 2022
There are indeed magnetic anomaly stripes that go through Iceland, although the activity of the island's volcanoes perturbs those stripes, so they are hard to follow.
From Scientific American ● Sep. 20, 2020
In F. Scott Fitzgerald’s fictional West Egg, Nick Carraway’s “ragged lawn” so perturbs Jay Gatsby that he sends his own gardener to tame it.
From New York Times ● Sep. 16, 2019
But instead of chilling his faith, the obstacle only generated that poet's philosophy of the "value of a lie" which perturbs the less experienced reader of Fifine.
From Robert Browning by Herford, C. H. (Charles Harold)
He said he was not perturbed by the stock drop, noting that Facebook fell under $18 a share just months after its May 2012 IPO closed at $38 a share.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 23, 2026
So my advice to people during these times is just do your job and show they were wrong and act like you’re unperturbed by it even though you are perturbed by it.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 21, 2026
More curiously, even though U.S. high-yield spreads are at post-1998 lows, few investors seemed to be unduly perturbed here.
From MarketWatch ● Dec. 18, 2025
His adversaries think he’ll crumple like yesterday’s broadsheet when they turn him away, and are perturbed to realize he’s more like the human equivalent of tissue hanging onto the heel of a shoe.
From Salon ● Sep. 23, 2025
The king cast a perturbed glance in my direction, and I realized he had forgotten his line.
From "The Shakespeare Stealer" by Gary L. Blackwood
“It’s perturbing and upsetting,” said Mark Bookbinder, a 68-year-old engineer who lives in Cincinnati.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 15, 2025
By combining this data with gene expression analysis and the known effects of perturbing specific genes, scientists have ascribed functions to such chromatin marks.
From Science Daily ● May 9, 2024
It’s a perturbing relationship; I feel as though my continued shunning of organized religion has in a sense estranged me from the memory of some very important people.
From Salon ● Mar. 31, 2024
This is because the smoke has disrupted this dynamic growth pattern, as opposed to just perturbing a more stable system like an adult.
From Slate ● Jun. 8, 2023
We are perturbing our poor planet in serious and contradictory ways.
From "Cosmos" by Carl Sagan
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.
