disorienting 1 of 2

disorienting

2 of 2

verb

present participle of disorient

Example Sentences

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Recent Examples of disorienting
Adjective
The common thread is control, texture, and slowness, all qualities Gen Z associates with a world that existed before smartphones, gig work, and platform algorithms flattened daily life into something frictionless and disorienting. Nick Lichtenberg, Fortune, 14 Aug. 2026 This makes things all the more disorienting when, near the final act, Greg’s leg is chomped off by an allosaurus mid-mallet-fight, before the dino proceeds to eat him headfirst. Siddhant Adlakha, Vulture, 13 Aug. 2026 What had once been dense and crowded was now open and disorienting. Lina Sergie Attar, Time, 6 Aug. 2026 Emotionally powerful and also disorienting, Agazero’s shifting sounds on Dissidente are an invitation to reflect on what calls us to the dancefloor, as well as what drives us away from it. Amanda Cavalcanti, Pitchfork, 31 July 2026 But the expectations after a year-defining hit were real, if subtly disorienting. Los Angeles Times, 22 July 2026 Yet the disorienting scale of the image and Ludwig Göransson’s pulsing, ethereal score yield an eerie, otherworldly atmosphere. Tiffany Kelly, Entertainment Weekly, 17 July 2026 The action mercifully settles into a less disorienting rhythm before too long, but the choppy prologue at least has the benefit of conveying the tense disarray that has gripped the shores of Ithaca in the decades since King Odysseus left for battle. David Ehrlich, IndieWire, 15 July 2026 Her compositions are often marked by her love of long, slow glissandi, string instruments sliding, sometimes languorously, sometimes dramatically, up and down in ways that can be haunting and disorienting, but always captivating and entrancing. Steve Hochman, SPIN, 15 July 2026
Verb
By surrounding Brazilian funk’s fundamental elements with uncanny violin samples and disorienting synths, Agazero seems to offer a bleak vision of the way the country’s most popular genre has been distorted and misrepresented overseas. Amanda Cavalcanti, Pitchfork, 31 July 2026 And with peak travel season underway, millions of people may have to contend with this disorienting condition, which can cause sleep disturbances, daytime tiredness, headaches and nasty gastrointestinal symptoms. Laura Ungar, Chicago Tribune, 25 July 2026 Diametrically across her on the opposite wall and in a disorienting symbiotic echo is a drawing of legendary football player Pelé. Rafa Sales Ross, Variety, 24 July 2026 After decades of work, the sudden lack of structure can be disorienting, prompting a search for new routines and purpose. Andrew Rosen, Forbes.com, 23 July 2026 Not everyone went slowly insane under such circumstances, as Bartleby does in Melville’s story, but the experience was disorienting all the same. Jake Lundberg, The Atlantic, 23 July 2026 Whether Spatial surrounds its reggae-toasting host with piles of drums, disorienting electronic beats, or locomotive rock music, Scratch abides as crooner, barker, mystic, meditation coach — whatever the moment requires. Craig Jenkins, Vulture, 8 July 2026 In the Victoria Room, a centerpiece of kaleidoscopes and angled mirrors creates a shifting, disorienting effect that echoes Alice’s world, surrounded by lush seasonal plantings. Gabby Sartori, USA Today, 25 June 2026 This doesn’t discredit the fact that mental and physical changes from menopause can be disorienting and jarring. Helen Carefoot, Flow Space, 17 June 2026
Recent Examples of Synonyms for disorienting
Adjective
  • Your husband’s abandonment was surely jarring, painful, and confusing.
    R. Eric Thomas, Chicago Tribune, 15 Aug. 2026
  • Your husband’s abandonment was surely jarring, painful and confusing.
    R. Eric Thomas, Mercury News, 15 Aug. 2026
Verb
  • Despite some protests about a dog contributing to the game, Buddy — clad in a bright blue jersey and two pairs of basketball kicks — scores baffling basket after baffling basket, leaving the other team shocked.
    Rachel Raposas, PEOPLE, 27 July 2026
  • While Loathe’s baffling compositional choices may jump out first, the album’s most glaring flaw is its production.
    Patrick Lyons, Pitchfork, 16 July 2026
Adjective
  • The second surprising ingredient was the most perplexing to me.
    Josh Miller, Southern Living, 9 Aug. 2026
  • Despite a relatively long history of drive-through bans, the idea is still novel and perplexing to Californians who love their burgers and love their cars.
    Los Angeles Times, Los Angeles Times, 26 July 2026
Verb
  • The threats are constantly evolving, layering upon themselves with bewildering speed.
    Craig Hooper, Forbes.com, 7 Aug. 2026
  • But these casting decisions are bewildering, to say the least, and will certainly cost the film ticket sales and potential revenue.
    Ian Miller OutKick, FOXNews.com, 6 July 2026
Adjective
  • Grief is one of the most confounding aspects of the human experience.
    Aramide Tinubu, Variety, 17 Apr. 2026
  • In 2021, one year into D’Amaro’s tenure and following COVID shutdowns, Disney did away with FastPass and introduced a confounding and very costly series of pay-to-skip passes, which require timing advanced booking of limited slots in these formerly free-to-enter shorter lines.
    Rebecca Alter, Vulture, 5 Feb. 2026
Verb
  • The encyclical’s critique of military AI is similarly puzzling.
    Foreign Affairs, Foreign Affairs, 10 Aug. 2026
  • It's become a world of quick and easy solutions for life's puzzling issues; seemingly solving them in 45 seconds or using household remedies.
    John Shumway, CBS News, 5 Aug. 2026
Adjective
  • Seehorn received a nomination for lead actress in a drama series for her portrayal of cynical Carol Sturka, a fantasy romance author who finds herself in a mystifying situation after a virus seems to have wiped out most of Earth’s population.
    Los Angeles Times, Los Angeles Times, 8 July 2026
  • The Mets’ continual snub of Hall of Famer Carter, a pivotal player in the team’s history as the first building block of the 1986 championship club, is both mystifying and downright embarrassing.
    Bill Madden, New York Daily News, 14 Mar. 2026
Adjective
  • But that was ambiguous enough for some overeager follow-up reports to mistake the book for the kill-and-tell that many had always assumed Finke would eventually write.
    Benjamin Svetkey, HollywoodReporter, 12 Aug. 2026
  • Worse than that, real-world sensor data is often so ambiguous, incomplete, and riddled with noise that the only way to describe it is borderline chaotic.
    David Szondy August 11, New Atlas, 11 Aug. 2026

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Cite this Entry

“Disorienting.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/disorienting. Accessed 17 Aug. 2026.

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