Discrepancy

How to spell discrepancy

11 letters · 4 syllables

How to pronounce discrepancy

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does discrepancy mean?

1. nounA difference or inconsistency between two or more things that should match.

Discrepancy in a sentence

• The auditor flagged a discrepancy between the invoice and the bank statement.

• There was a clear discrepancy between his account of the evening and the security footage.

Where does discrepancy come from?

Language of origin: Latin

The word comes from the Latin discrepare, a verb meaning 'to sound differently' or 'to be out of tune', built from dis- meaning 'apart' and crepare, which literally meant 'to rattle, crackle, or make a noise'. So at root a discrepancy is a case of two things that do not make the same sound, a vivid image of jarring disagreement. Latin formed the noun discrepantia for that state of clashing or inconsistency, and English took it up in the fifteenth century, at first in the spelling discrepance before the -ancy ending settled in. The same crepare root survives in the rarer word 'decrepit', literally something worn out and creaking. Knowing that the ending is -ancy, not -ency, and that there is a single c after the dis-, is the main spelling trap to remember.

How the word is built

• dis- (apart)
• crep- (from Latin crepare: to rattle, make a noise)
• -ancy (noun-forming suffix)