Disrupt

How to spell disrupt

7 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce disrupt

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does disrupt mean?

1. verbTo interrupt or throw into disorder an activity, process, or system so that it cannot continue normally.

Disrupt in a sentence

• A signalling fault can disrupt the entire morning commute.

• Loud roadworks outside the office disrupt every meeting we hold.

Where does disrupt come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word traces back to the Latin verb disrumpere, which meant to break apart or burst asunder. It was formed from the prefix dis-, meaning apart or in different directions, joined to the verb rumpere, meaning to break or rupture. The past participle disruptus gave English the stem we still spell with -rupt, the same family that produces rupture, erupt, corrupt, and interrupt, all of which share the idea of something breaking. Disrupt entered English in the early 1600s, at first describing things literally broken apart, and later softened into the familiar modern sense of throwing an orderly process or arrangement into disorder. Keeping the rumpere root in mind explains why the spelling ends in -rupt rather than the -rapt you might expect from the sound.

How the word is built

• dis- (apart)
• rupt (from Latin rumpere, to break)