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discordant

Definition, pronunciation, etymology, and usage for the English word. Free spelling reference powered by Wiktionary.

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10 characters

Language

English

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Detailed reference entry for the English word "discordant", 10-letters, with pronunciation in International Phonetic Alphabet notation, etymology traced through Germanic and Romance roots where applicable, common misspelling variants catalogued from Hunspell error dictionaries, and usage frequency ranked against the top 100,000 English words in the Wordfreq corpus. PlainSpell covers English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German spelling with confusable-pair detection that highlights visually and phonetically similar words. This entry for "discordant" includes synonyms, antonyms, homophones, and cross-language translation pointers sourced from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org extract. Whether you are verifying the correct spelling of "discordant" for academic writing, checking homophone confusion, or exploring etymological origins, this page provides a citation-backed, free reference that requires no sign-up.

discordant is anEnglishadj. It means: Not in accord or harmony; conflicting, incompatible. Pronounced /dɪsˈkɔːdn̩t/.

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Key facts for discordant
PropertyValue
Headworddiscordant
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechAdj
IPA/dɪsˈkɔːdn̩t/
Letters10
Frequency rank#47,019
Misspellings tracked16
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Frequency rank visualization

Position of discordant in English word frequency (lower rank = more common)

Source: Wordfreq corpus

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

The English entry for discordant is 10 letters long, classified as anadj, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /dɪsˈkɔːdn̩t/. Corpus data places it at rank #47,019 in overall English word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it.Wiktionary records 8 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.

Our Hunspell-derived misspelling index lists 16 documented wrong-spelling variants for discordant, with forms such as "ddiscordant", "dicsordant", and "disccordant". Each variant represents a distinct typo pattern that appears often enough in corpora to be worth flagging, typically a doubled-consonant error, a silent-letter drop, or a vowel substitution.It is not paired with a close-neighbour confusable in our dataset, which tends to mean the word is visually distinctive enough to stand on its own.

Etymologically, the entry records: From Late Middle English discordaunt (“(adjective) not in accord or harmony; dissonant; (noun) element not in accord or harmony”), from Anglo-Norman descorda(u)nt, discorda(u)nt, Middle French descordant, discordant, and Old French descordant, discordant (“… Root origin matters for spelling because borrowed morphemes (Greek, Latin, Old French, Old English) carry their source-language orthographic conventions into modern English, which is why historical etymology is often the cleanest predictor of whether a cluster like "-ough", "-eau", or "-tion" will appear. For readers arriving here from a spelling check, the authoritative guidance is: the correct English form is discordant, spelled D-I-S-C-O-R-D-A-N-T, and any other sequence of those letters, regardless of how natural it feels, is a misspelling in standard orthography.

Definition

  1. 1
    Not in accord or harmony; conflicting, incompatible.
  2. 2
    Not in accord or harmony; conflicting, incompatible.
  3. 3
    Not in accord or harmony; conflicting, incompatible.
  4. 4
    Of a rock formation or other land feature, or its alignment: cutting across or transverse to neighbouring features.
  5. 5
    Of a rock formation or other land feature, or its alignment: cutting across or transverse to neighbouring features.
  6. 6
    Of two similar subjects, especially twins: differing in some characteristic.
  7. 7
    Ellipsis of serodiscordant (“of a couple: with one partner HIV positive and the other HIV negative”).
  8. 8
    Of figures, etc.: having opposite signs (for example, positive and negative).

Etymology

From Late Middle English discordaunt (“(adjective) not in accord or harmony; dissonant; (noun) element not in accord or harmony”), from Anglo-Norman descorda(u)nt, discorda(u)nt, Middle French descordant, discordant, and Old French descordant, discordant (“of people: quarrelsome; of things: in disagreement, at variance”) (modern French discordant), an adjective use of the present participle of descorder, discorder (“to fail to agree or harmonize, clash, disagree, discord”), from Latin discordāre, the present active infinitive of discordō (“to disagree, quarrel with”), from discors (“discordant, different, inharmonious”) + -ō (suffix forming regular first-conjugation verbs). Discors is derived from dis- (“prefix meaning ‘apart, in two’”) + cor (“heart; (figurative) mind; soul”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *ḱḗr (“heart”)). By surface analysis, discord (noun) + -ant (suffix forming adjectives from nouns with the sense ‘exhibiting [the condition or process described by the noun]’).

This word in other languages

Common misspellings

Also misspelled as: ddiscordant,dicsordant,disccordant,discodrant,discoradnt,discordannt,discordantt,discordatn,discorddant,discordnat,discorrdant,discrodant,disocrdant,disscordant,dsicordant,idscordant

Misspelling Pattern Breakdown

Relative frequency of common misspelling types for discordant

Misspelling Variants of "discordant"

ddiscordant11dicsordant10disccordant11discodrant10discoradnt10discordannt11discordantt11discordatn10
Misspelling Variants of "discordant"

Frequency rank: #47,019 in English

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "discordant"?
"discordant" is spelled D-I-S-C-O-R-D-A-N-T. The IPA pronunciation is /dɪsˈkɔːdn̩t/.
What does "discordant" mean?
As an adj, "discordant" means: Not in accord or harmony; conflicting, incompatible.
What are common misspellings of "discordant"?
Common misspellings include "ddiscordant", "dicsordant", "disccordant", "discodrant", "discoradnt". The correct spelling is "discordant".
How do you pronounce "discordant"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "discordant" is /dɪsˈkɔːdn̩t/. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What is the origin of the word "discordant"?
From Late Middle English discordaunt (“(adjective) not in accord or harmony; dissonant; (noun) element not in accord or harmony”), from Anglo-Norman descorda(u)nt, discorda(u)nt, Middle French descordant, discordant, and Old French descordant, dis... See the full etymology section above for more details.
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Nearby English words

Other entries that begin with the letter D in our English index:

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Data Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Frequency data from Wordfreq. Misspellings derived from Hunspell dictionaries.