Dissatisfaction

How to spell dissatisfaction

15 letters · 5 syllables

How to pronounce dissatisfaction

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does dissatisfaction mean?

1. nounA feeling of being unhappy or unfulfilled because something has not met your expectations or needs.

Dissatisfaction in a sentence

• The survey revealed widespread dissatisfaction with the new pay structure.

• Customers expressed their dissatisfaction in dozens of online reviews.

Where does dissatisfaction come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word is built on satisfaction, which English took from Old French in the 1300s, and which traces back to the Latin satisfacere, meaning 'to satisfy' or literally 'to do enough'. That verb joined satis, meaning 'enough', with facere, meaning 'to make' or 'to do', so the original idea was of doing or making enough to meet a demand. The negative prefix dis-, meaning 'not' or 'the reverse of', was added to satisfaction in the late 1500s to name the feeling of needs or expectations not being met. The same facere root that lies hidden inside this word also powers a huge family of everyday English words such as factory, manufacture and benefit. The spelling trap is mostly at the start: the dis- prefix meeting the s of satis produces a doubled s (dis-satisfaction), which writers often reduce to a single one.

How the word is built

• dis- (not, reversal)
• satis (enough)
• fac (make, do)
• -tion (noun of action)