disheartening
adjective, verb
disheartening is spelled D-I-S-H-E-A-R-T-E-N-I-N-G: 13 letters and 4 syllables. It appears about once in every 1 million words in written English, the 34,504th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As an adjective, disheartening means “Causing a person to lose heart; making despondent or gloomy” (English Wiktionary, September 2026).
How many letters and syllables are in disheartening?
| Letters | 13: D-I-S-H-E-A-R-T-E-N-I-N-G |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 4 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | about once in every 1 million words; the 34,504th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none measured in search |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How common is disheartening?
Disheartening appears about once in every 1 million words in written English, the 34,504th most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How do you pronounce disheartening?
Disheartening has 4 syllables (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Forms of disheartening
- more disheartening comparative
- most disheartening superlative
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does disheartening mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
adjective
- 1
Causing a person to lose heart; making despondent or gloomy.
verb
- 1
present participle and gerund of dishearten
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Disheartening in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense adjective:
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | démoralisant |
| Portuguese | desanimador |
| Spanish | descorazonador, descorazonante |
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.