discordant

adjective

dis·​cor·​dant di-ˈskȯr-dᵊnt 

1

a

: being at variance : disagreeing

discordant opinions

b

: quarrelsome

a discordant family

2

music : relating to a discord (see discord entry 1 sense 2)

a discordant tone

discordantly adverb

Did you know?

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).

Synonyms

• cacophonous
• dissonant
• inharmonious
• unmelodious
• unmusical
• unvocal

Examples of discordant in a Sentence

She has the difficult task of bringing together a number of discordant elements.

discordant tones coming from the poorly tuned instrument

Recent Examples on the Web

And experts advise leaning in to family occasions during discordant times. —Belinda Luscombe, TIME, 9 Apr. 2024

And only an author keenly attuned not just to nature, but to man’s discordant place in it, could be so clear-eyed about the inescapable pathos of animal life. —Philip Kennicott, Washington Post, 8 Apr. 2024

At the moment, however, the language is more discordant: a steady din of voices amid sporadic sounds of vacuum cleaners, welding torches, hair dryers and blenders. —Thomas Curwen, Los Angeles Times, 31 Dec. 2023

But the film ends on a tendentious and discordant note that detracts from the whole. —The Editors, National Review, 5 Apr. 2024

Share this article Newsletter Get Quanta Magazine delivered to your inbox Introduction Those discordant measurements have only become more distinct in the decade or so since the first cracks emerged. —Quanta Magazine, 19 Jan. 2024

Those echoes sound more and more discordant as Israel’s retaliation becomes ever bloodier. —Fintan O’Toole, The New York Review of Books, 14 Nov. 2023

Unlike Welcome, Alika Rising envelops into discordant notes, notably punctuated by Brown’s turn on piano. —Shannon J. Effinger, SPIN, 13 Mar. 2024

This has made for the one discordant note in the otherwise over-the-moon reception by the Left of the president’s State of the Union address. —Rich Lowry, National Review, 11 Mar. 2024

Word History

Etymology

see discord entry 2

First Known Use

14th century, in the meaning defined at sense 1a

Kids Definition

discordant

adjective

dis·​cord·​ant

dis-ˈkȯrd-ᵊnt

1

a

: not being in agreement

discordant opinions

b

: quarrelsome

a discordant family

2

: relating to or producing a discord

discordant music

discordantly adverb

Medical Definition

discordant

adjective

dis·​cor·​dant dis-ˈkȯrd-ᵊnt 

of twins

: dissimilar with respect to one or more particular characters compare concordant

discordance

-ᵊn(t)s 

noun