dispersed

past tense of disperse
1
as in dissipated
to go off in different directions and cease to exist as a body or unified whole the crowd dispersed once the show ended

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2
3
as in disbanded
to cease to exist or cause to cease to exist as a group or organization the campaign staff dispersed almost immediately after the election

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Antonyms & Near Antonyms

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 dispersed Riot police dispersed protesters using tear gas, stun grenades, and water cannons. — News Desk, Artforum, 21 Oct. 2026 For an intervention dispersed through a harbor and out to sea, that may be as close as the ocean gets to a meter reading. — Alec Luhn, Scientific American, 20 Oct. 2026 More than 300 people also attempted to advance up the Avenue des Champs-Élysées before police dispersed the crowd with tear gas. — Rhonda Richford, Footwear News, 18 Oct. 2026 There are seven bedrooms and six full bathrooms dispersed throughout, with additional spaces including a billiards room with a bar, a cozy reading nook, and a sun porch with wraparound windows. — Tori Latham, Robb Report, 16 Oct. 2026 Anti-Japanese sentiment had motivated Amino’s move from Los Angeles to New York in 1935; the US deemed East Coast Japanese populations as more dispersed and thus less of a threat. — Robert Sullivan, Vogue, 8 Oct. 2026 Federal wildlife managers euthanized 28,000 animals in California in 2025 and dispersed about 1 million more as part of a nationwide program meant to control invasive species and minimize danger to people, pets and livestock, new data shows. — Sharon Bernstein, Sacbee.com, 7 Oct. 2026 The flurries of pigment inside them were dispersed by bursts of air delivered through the base of the box. — Literary Hub, 1 Oct. 2026 Electron microscopy and elemental analysis revealed that the iron-containing molecules were dispersed across the carbon at atomic and molecular scales rather than forming larger particles. — Georgina Jedikovska, Interesting Engineering, 29 Sep. 2026
Recent Examples of Synonyms for dispersed
Verb
  • But at this distance the jet’s energy wouldn’t have dissipated much during its voyage through space.
    — Robin George Andrews, Scientific American, 20 Oct. 2026
  • Nearly half a million utility customers were without power after Isaias slowly pushed through the Southeast and dissipated into a post-tropical cyclone tonight.
    — Erika Angulo, NBC news, 11 Oct. 2026
Verb
  • The Israelis bombed the cemetery where her friends were buried, leaving body parts and bones scattered for relatives to collect like a puzzle.
    — Literary Hub, Literary Hub, 23 Oct. 2026
  • The feeling of a fading-but-potent New York is scattered across a compilation of Hall’s music drawn from more than 40 years of work, My Skyscraper, released under the name Nirosta Steel just a few months ago.
    — Jack Denton, Vulture, 22 Oct. 2026
Verb
  • The task force became a magnet of congressional Republican criticism during the Biden investigation and was disbanded in February 2025 by then-Atty.
    — Eric Tucker, Los Angeles Times, 23 Oct. 2026
  • By 2002, the group had disbanded, but some of its members founded TOOOL and went on to launch yearly lock-picking competitions.
    — Shayla Love, New Yorker, 10 Oct. 2026
Verb
  • Lin was subsequently disappeared from the film, all sources concurred, and Belgrad stepped in as the primary Netflix exec overseeing the project (until, of course, he was laid off last week).
    — Matt Donnelly, Variety, 20 Oct. 2026
  • Amelia Earhart and her navigator, Fred Noonan, disappeared in their Lockheed Electra 10-E while on a journey around the world.
    — Marlene Lenthang, NBC news, 19 Oct. 2026
Verb
  • In 1986 the United States unilaterally declared that the trust was dissolved.
    — Encyclopedia Britannica, Encyclopedia Britannica, 23 Oct. 2026
  • Though the nonprofit has dissolved, Century Walk’s legacy lives on in Naperville with a collection of art pieces that span 53 locations across the city.
    — Carolyn Stein, Chicago Tribune, 22 Oct. 2026
Verb
  • The process recalls versioning in dub, where an existing recording is stripped down and reconstructed, its individual elements isolated, amplified or faded out entirely.
    — Tara Anne Dalbow, Los Angeles Times, 21 Oct. 2026
  • Most movie theaters disappeared decades ago and the culture of cinemagoing has faded from the lives of the younger generations.
    — Literary Hub, Literary Hub, 21 Oct. 2026

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Cite this Entry

“Dispersed.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/dispersed. Accessed 28 Oct. 2026.

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