Disparity

How to spell disparity

9 letters · 4 syllables

How to pronounce disparity

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does disparity mean?

1. nounA clear or significant difference, especially an unequal or unfair one, between two or more things being compared.

Disparity in a sentence

• The report highlighted a wide disparity in pay between the two departments.

• There is a striking disparity between the cost of housing in the city and in the countryside.

Where does disparity come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word traces back to the Latin dispar, meaning 'unequal' or 'unlike', which was formed from the prefix dis-, carrying a sense of 'not' or 'apart', joined to par, meaning 'equal' (the same par that gives us 'par', 'parity', and 'compare'). Late Latin built the noun disparitas to name the condition of being unequal, and that passed into Old French as disparite before arriving in English in the late 1500s. From the start it described a marked difference or inequality between things being compared, especially in degree, amount, or rank. A useful memory hook for the spelling is its close relative 'parity', meaning equality: a disparity is literally a lack of parity, so the central -par- stays put and the ending is -ity, not -ety. The same par root surfaces in 'peer' and 'umpire', both ultimately tied to the idea of an equal.

How the word is built

• dis- (not, apart)
• par (equal)
• -ity (noun-forming suffix)