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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Recent Examples of dissonance
Through all these inconsistencies, absences, dissonances, and contradictions, an overarching coherence emerges.
—
Richard Brody, New Yorker, 7 Oct. 2025
Raven’s marvel of a case study recapitulates the dissonance whereby cycles—political, social, structural, ecological—continue, monuments are created and destroyed and momentum is incited and frustrated, all while costs continue to mount.
—Anne Reeve, Artforum, 1 Oct. 2025
Why the gap exists This divide reflects what scholars call intergenerational cultural dissonance.
—Hind Haddad, The Conversation, 30 Sep. 2025
From Zehetmair’s searching dissonances, the SPCO moved into Brahms’ Double Concerto, performed by concertmaster Steven Copes and principal cello Julie Albers.
—Sheila Regan, Twin Cities, 13 Sep. 2025
See All Example Sentences for dissonance
Richard Brody, New Yorker, 7 Oct. 2025
Raven’s marvel of a case study recapitulates the dissonance whereby cycles—political, social, structural, ecological—continue, monuments are created and destroyed and momentum is incited and frustrated, all while costs continue to mount.
—Anne Reeve, Artforum, 1 Oct. 2025
Why the gap exists This divide reflects what scholars call intergenerational cultural dissonance.
—Hind Haddad, The Conversation, 30 Sep. 2025
From Zehetmair’s searching dissonances, the SPCO moved into Brahms’ Double Concerto, performed by concertmaster Steven Copes and principal cello Julie Albers.
—Sheila Regan, Twin Cities, 13 Sep. 2025
See All Example Sentences for dissonance
Recent Examples of Synonyms for dissonance
Noun
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And then, playing cleverly on their natural discord, River and Shirley argue their way through a standoff with Farouk just long enough for Coe to take advantage of the distraction and plunge a blade in Farouk’s neck.—
Scott Tobias,
Vulture,
29 Oct. 2025
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China, for its part, has also stoked the flames of discord in recent weeks, first by announcing new global export controls on rare earth minerals, key components in technologies and weaponry.—
Kate Nishimura,
Sourcing Journal,
23 Oct. 2025
Noun
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Once the largest importer of American soybeans, China paused purchases of the product in May as bilateral frictions intensified.—
John Liu,
CNN Money,
24 Oct. 2025
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To be sure, OpenAI’s surge isn’t without friction.—
Paulina Likos,
CNBC,
24 Oct. 2025
Noun
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The sport of off-roading suffers from a fundamental discordance: The desire to get out into nature and the irreparable harm inherent in the process of off-roading.—
Tim Stevens,
ArsTechnica,
25 July 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,
The Tennessean,
2 July 2025
Noun
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New York — The stock market rally has already defied expectations this year, shrugging off geopolitical strife, economic uncertainty and global trade tensions to reach fresh record highs.—
John Towfighi,
CNN Money,
27 Oct. 2025
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Considering how close Canadian fans were to witnessing Ohtani's greatness regularly, their strife and pain are understandable.—
Nelson Espinal,
MSNBC Newsweek,
25 Oct. 2025
Noun
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The Raptors also played the Bucks, a 122-116 loss, with the home team bumping the game’s start time up by an hour to minimize the conflict between the two games.—
Eric Koreen,
New York Times,
25 Oct. 2025
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That is, some of the properties suffered damage during the war, but others were destroyed because the owners left the country during the conflict.—
JSTOR Daily,
JSTOR Daily,
25 Oct. 2025
Noun
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The discordancy is so intriguing — like learning that Katharine Graham went to nude encounter sessions at Esalen, or Alan Greenspan was once in a Lynyrd Skynyrd cover band.—
New York Times,
New York Times,
17 Nov. 2021
Noun
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Rogers noted that the book argues that a central cause of the war was Anglo settlers’ determination to keep slaves in bondage after Mexico largely abolished it.—
Preston Fore,
Fortune,
25 Oct. 2025
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In the five years just before war set in, these were among the dwellings that had beguiled Heinz Gaube (1940–2022), a German academic at the Oriental Seminar of the Eberhard Karls University of Tübingen.—
JSTOR Daily,
JSTOR Daily,
25 Oct. 2025
Noun
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Even so, some observers see the schism as an opportunity to relitigate the relitigation.—
Jasmin Malik Chua,
Sourcing Journal,
24 Oct. 2025
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Unlike his isolated vote in 2006, the schism runs much deeper now.—
Frederic J. Frommer,
The Washington Examiner,
17 Oct. 2025
Cite this Entry
“Dissonance.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/dissonance. Accessed 2 Nov. 2025.
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