Disparate

How to spell disparate

9 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce disparate

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does disparate mean?

1. adjectiveEssentially different in kind, so as not to allow easy comparison or combination.

Disparate in a sentence

• The report tried to draw together disparate sources of data into one clear summary.

• The committee struggled to reconcile the disparate views of its members.

Where does disparate come from?

Language of origin: Latin

Disparate comes from the Latin disparatus, the past participle of disparare, a verb meaning 'to separate' or 'to divide', formed from dis- 'apart' and parare 'to prepare or arrange'. In meaning, though, the modern English sense leans heavily on the related Latin adjective dispar, meaning 'unequal' or 'unlike', built from dis- 'not' and par 'equal', the same par that gives us 'pair', 'parity' and 'compare'. English adopted the word in the early 1600s to describe things that are essentially different in kind, not merely separated in space. That blend of two Latin sources is why the spelling can mislead: the stressed first syllable and the unstressed schwa endings ('-perate') tempt writers toward 'desperate', a completely unrelated word about despair. Keeping the 'par' visible, as in 'pair' and 'parity', is a reliable way to fix the correct middle of disparate in memory.

How the word is built

• dis- (apart)
• par (equal, from Latin par)
• -ate (adjective suffix)