Dismissive

How to spell dismissive

10 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce dismissive

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does dismissive mean?

1. adjectiveShowing that you regard someone or something as unworthy of serious consideration.

Dismissive in a sentence

• The manager was openly dismissive of every suggestion the junior staff raised.

• Her dismissive tone made it clear she had already decided not to read the report.

Where does dismissive come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word grows out of the verb 'dismiss', which English took in the 1400s from the Latin dimittere, literally 'to send away', formed from dis- (here meaning 'apart' or 'away') and mittere, 'to send'. The past participle of mittere was missus, and that 'miss' element is the same root that sits inside 'mission', 'missile', and 'submit', all things that involve sending. By the early 1800s English speakers had built the adjective 'dismissive' to describe an attitude that brushes a person or idea aside, treating it as not worth attention, as if mentally sending it away. The doubled 's' that trips writers up simply preserves the Latin missus spelling. Remembering that to be dismissive is to send something away with a wave of the hand keeps both the meaning and the spelling in view.

How the word is built

• dis- (away)
• miss (from Latin mittere/missus: to send)
• -ive (adjective suffix)