discordant
adjective
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Discord, a word more common in earlier centuries than today, means basically "conflict", so discordant often means "conflicting". The opinions of Supreme Court justices are frequently discordant; justices who disagree with the Court's decision usually write a dissenting opinion. Discordant is often used with a somewhat musical meaning, suggesting that a single wrong note or harmony has been heard in the middle of a performance—even though musical words such as chord actually come from a different Latin word, meaning "cord" or "string" (a reference to the strings of ancient instruments such as the lyre).
Examples of discordant in a Sentence
Alissa Quart, TIME, 13 Mar. 2025
This constant barrage of discordant, unexpected, and often troubling news tends to distract us and erode our concentration.
—Alissa Quart, TIME, 13 Mar. 2025
If the past 50 years of scores were all about boundless emotionality, these newer scores are pulsing and discordant — closer to Steve Reich or Karlheinz Stockhausen than European Romantic composers like Beethoven or first-generation Americans like Leonard Bernstein.
—Fran Hoepfner, Vulture, 27 Feb. 2025
Over a pleasantly discordant score of dreamy electronic chords and twanging banjos, Matthew finds pencil marks charting his growth as a child while these parents fuss over their own new baby.
—Amy Nicholson, Los Angeles Times, 13 Feb. 2025
See All Example Sentences for discordant
Cite this Entry
“Discordant.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/discordant. Accessed 30 Apr. 2025.
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discordant
adjective
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