dysfunctional

adjective

dys·​func·​tion·​al (ˌ)dis-ˈfəŋ(k)-sh(ə-)nəl 

: characterized by or exhibiting dysfunction: such as

a

: not functioning properly : marked by impaired or abnormal functioning

With 180,000 employees and a $43 billion budget, the department is a collage of 22 distinct government agencies drawn from different corners of the federal organization chart and glued together into a single, largely dysfunctional unit.

—Paul C. Light

This form of anemia develops because the bone marrow is not producing new cells rapidly enough to replace old cells that have become destroyed or otherwise dysfunctional.

—Tom Ewing

This led to a dysfunctional credit market that in important respects soon turned non-functional.

—Warren E. Buffett

b

: characterized by abnormal or unhealthy interpersonal behavior or interaction

dysfunctional relationships

As with any dysfunctional family, it may take an outsider to get a clear picture of the situation.

—Chris Mooney

Did you know?

Dysfunctional and dysfunction have been used for almost a hundred years, often in medical writing ("brain dysfunction", "a dysfunctional liver") but also by social scientists ("a dysfunctional city council", "diplomatic dysfunction"). But they only really entered the general vocabulary in the 1980s, when therapists and talk-show hosts began talking about dysfunctional families. The signs of family dysfunction turned out to be numerous, and it soon began to seem as if pretty much all our families could be called dysfunctional.

Examples of dysfunctional in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

The series debuts across Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, and follows a dysfunctional bird family hosting their own talk show. —Charlie Fink, Forbes.com, 25 Apr. 2025

The reporter asked about the St. Louis election board, a dysfunctional organization that, by all accounts, Martin had helped turn around in the mid-2000s. —Jeremy Kohler, ProPublica, 24 Apr. 2025

The four, all onetime allies of Hegseth, describe a dysfunctional atmosphere under the former Fox News host’s leadership. —Dave Goldiner, New York Daily News, 22 Apr. 2025

The book identifies a host of factors that have thwarted global environmental cooperation, including the Western world’s neoliberal economic ideology, failures to distribute the burdens of adaptation, dysfunctional international institutions, and weak global norms of multilateral problem solving. —Foreign Affairs, 22 Apr. 2025

Word History

Etymology

dysfunction + -al entry 1, after functional

First Known Use

1915, in the meaning defined above

Rhymes for dysfunctional

• bifunctional
• nonfunctional
• functional
• junctional