Dispose

How to spell dispose

7 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce dispose

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does dispose mean?

1. verbTo get rid of something, or to deal with and settle a matter, typically followed by 'of'.
2. verbTo make someone inclined toward something, or to arrange things in a particular order.

Dispose in a sentence

• The council will dispose of the old furniture next week.

• A generous welcome can dispose new clients to trust the firm.

• Workers must dispose of the chemicals according to strict safety rules.

• The manager liked to dispose the desks so that every screen faced the window.

Where does dispose come from?

Language of origin: Latin

The word comes from the Latin disponere, meaning 'to arrange, set in order, or distribute', formed from dis- 'apart, in different directions' and ponere 'to put or place'. It travelled into English in the 1300s through the Old French disposer, where the second part had been reshaped under the influence of the French verb poser 'to set down', which is why English ended up with -pose rather than the Latin -pone. The earliest English senses kept close to the Latin idea of arranging or setting things in their proper places, and the familiar modern phrase 'dispose of', meaning to get rid of something, grew out of that notion of putting matters away or settling them. The same ponere root still lurks inside a whole family of relatives such as 'compose', 'propose', and 'deposit', and noticing that shared -pose ending is a useful anchor for the spelling. The figurative sense of being 'well disposed', meaning inclined or made ready in mind, also descends directly from the original meaning of arranging or ordering one's feelings.

How the word is built

• dis- (apart, in different directions)
• -pose (from Latin ponere: to put, place)