as in discord
a lack of agreement or harmony
the dissonance between what we are told and what we see with our own eyes
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Example Sentences
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Recent Examples of dissonance
For Obery Hendricks, an ordained elder in the African Methodist Episcopal Church who teaches religion at Columbia University, the dissonance is both aesthetic and religious.
—
Jason Derose, NPR, 26 May 2026
Davis understood dissonance wasn’t a drawback but an opportunity to explore.
—Steven D. Reske, Chicago Tribune, 24 May 2026
Instruments and voices accumulate into immense, sustained, saturating dissonances, with a snare drum cutting through the tear-gas haze.
—Alex Ross, New Yorker, 18 May 2026
And then shifting chords where the harmonies overlap, so there’s a moment of dissonance.
—Justin Davidson, Vulture, 15 May 2026
See All Example Sentences for dissonance
Jason Derose, NPR, 26 May 2026
Davis understood dissonance wasn’t a drawback but an opportunity to explore.
—Steven D. Reske, Chicago Tribune, 24 May 2026
Instruments and voices accumulate into immense, sustained, saturating dissonances, with a snare drum cutting through the tear-gas haze.
—Alex Ross, New Yorker, 18 May 2026
And then shifting chords where the harmonies overlap, so there’s a moment of dissonance.
—Justin Davidson, Vulture, 15 May 2026
See All Example Sentences for dissonance
Recent Examples of Synonyms for dissonance
Noun
-
The Dishonest Job Search researchers give recommendations for hiring managers, job seekers and organizations to mitigate the confusion and discord in the hiring process.—
Bryan Robinson,
Forbes.com,
6 July 2025
-
Despite the internal and external discord, Senate Majority Leader John Thune is pushing to finalize the bill before the July 4 holiday.—
Lily Mae Lazarus,
Fortune,
1 July 2025
Noun
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The strategy could lead to friction with the federal government.—
Collin Binkley,
Fortune,
11 Dec. 2025
-
Sometimes, even that smallest amount of friction means your fleeting thought of adding a reminder is lost forever.—
Reed Albergotti,
semafor.com,
10 Dec. 2025
Noun
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Part of that discordance might be the fact that as a genre, rock has historically been difficult to define.—
Hannah Dailey,
Billboard,
19 Nov. 2025
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Many of the tunes including sprawling intros and jam sessions, all melded together with discordance, reverb and instrumental solos.—
Audrey Gibbs,
Nashville Tennessean,
19 Apr. 2025
Noun
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The financial strife seemed like a death knell for one of the city’s largest redevelopment projects, an effort Stammel spent years helping to engineer.—
Zachary Hansen,
AJC.com,
11 June 2026
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The community in Boulder County has been in good hands through strife and trauma.—
The Denver Post Editorial Board,
Denver Post,
8 June 2026
Noun
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In other words, the current combination of US political tensions and global conflicts are driving more US nationals to seek new options overseas.—
Jessica Puckett,
Condé Nast Traveler,
16 June 2026
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Notably, the Vikings haven’t been able to create this conflict.—
Alec Lewis,
New York Times,
16 June 2026
Noun
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Meanwhile, Trump’s decision to go to war with Iran has roiled the global energy markets and sent the cost of gas and jet fuel soaring.—
Kyle Feldscher,
CNN Money,
11 June 2026
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Drone boat rescues chopper pilots in Iran war.—
Jim Edwards,
Fortune,
10 June 2026
Noun
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The Daily Dividend Pope Leo's call for AI regulation has created a schism within the White House.—
Alex Harring,
CNBC,
27 May 2026
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In the intervening years, this most consequential bilateral relationship in the world had become dysfunctional, battered by a cascade of schisms including a global pandemic, increasing ideological antagonism, accelerating geopolitical rivalry, and surging trade tension.—
Lyle Goldstein,
Time,
19 May 2026
Noun
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The platform’s open-architecture design allows mission modules to be swapped in roughly two hours, enabling rapid transitions between strike, transport, and electronic-warfare roles.—
Kapil Kajal,
Interesting Engineering,
11 Dec. 2025
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Deep-seabed mining would also advance another Chinese security imperative by facilitating the mapping of the seabed and the laying of undersea cables that can be used in support of naval and submarine warfare.—
ELIZABETH ECONOMY,
Foreign Affairs,
9 Dec. 2025
Cite this Entry
“Dissonance.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/dissonance. Accessed 17 Jun. 2026.
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