Disc

How to spell disc

4 letters · 1 syllable

How to pronounce disc

What does disc mean?

1. nounA thin, flat, circular object, such as a compact disc or a brake component.
2. nounA flat plate of cartilage between the vertebrae of the spine.

Disc in a sentence

• The band released their new album on vinyl and disc.

• The scan showed a slipped disc pressing on a nerve in his lower back.

• The mechanic replaced a worn brake disc on the front wheel.

• Physiotherapy helped relieve the pain from her bulging disc.

Where does disc come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word traces back to the Latin discus, which named a flat circular plate and, famously, the heavy quoit that athletes hurled in ancient games. The Romans had borrowed it in turn from the Greek diskos, meaning a thing thrown, built on the verb dikein, to throw or cast. English actually received two descendants of this single root: the learned form 'disc' (and its variant 'disk'), and, by a separate route through Old French and Italian, the everyday words 'dish' and 'desk', all originally describing something flat and round. The clipped spelling 'disc' became the preferred British form and stuck firmly to optical media such as the compact disc, while American usage leaned toward 'disk' for computing. The single trap for spellers is the final c rather than a k, a reminder of the Latin discus sitting at its origin.

How the word is built

• disc (from Latin discus: a flat circular plate or quoit)

British and American spelling

Disc is the British spelling. American English spells it disk.