Disorder

How to spell disorder

8 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce disorder

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does disorder mean?

1. nounA state of confusion, untidiness, or lack of organisation.
2. nounAn illness or condition that disrupts the normal functioning of the body or mind.
3. verbTo disrupt the normal arrangement or functioning of something.

Disorder in a sentence

• noun

  The storeroom was left in complete disorder after the sale.

• noun

  The clinic specialises in treating sleep disorder in adults.

• verb

  A single careless move can disorder the carefully filed records.

• noun

  Financial disorder forced the company to bring in new auditors.

• noun

  She was diagnosed with a rare blood disorder after the tests.

• verb

  Heavy flooding could disorder the entire rail timetable for days.

Where does disorder come from?

Language of origin: French

This word is built on 'order', which English took in the 1200s from Old French 'ordre' and ultimately from the Latin 'ordo', meaning 'a row, a rank, a regular arrangement'. The prefix 'dis-' carries the sense of reversal or the absence of something, so 'disorder' literally describes the undoing of an orderly arrangement. English seems to have modelled it on the Old French 'desordre', which combined the same elements, and the verb and noun both appear in English from the late 1400s. Over time the noun branched into two strands: the everyday sense of muddle and confusion, and the medical sense of an ailment, where the body's normal working has been thrown out of its proper order. The spelling stays helpfully transparent once you see the two clean blocks 'dis' and 'order', which is worth remembering because writers occasionally drop a letter at the join.

How the word is built

• dis- (reversal, lack of)
• order (arrangement, sequence; from Latin ordo)