disturbs

verb

present tense third-person singular of disturb
1
as in bothers
to trouble the mind of; to make uneasy all that talk of war disturbed us

Synonyms & Similar Words

Relevance

Antonyms & Near Antonyms
2
as in removes
to change the place or position of the items on her desk had been disturbed by someone

Synonyms & Similar Words

Antonyms & Near Antonyms
3
as in disrupts
to undo the proper order or arrangement of her careful filing system is sure to be disturbed during the move

Synonyms & Similar Words

Antonyms & Near Antonyms
4
as in annoys
to thrust oneself upon (another) without invitation sorry to disturb you while you're working

Synonyms & Similar Words

Antonyms & Near Antonyms
5
as in weighs
to cause discomfort to or trouble for please do not disturb yourself—I'll get my own drink

Synonyms & Similar Words

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 disturbs Some of the sightings claim a man wearing clothing typical of the 17th or 18th centuries, a man dressed in Confederate attire in the liquor room, a ghost of a former worker Joseph Hardesty and a female who actively disturbs visitors to her home. — Kaitlyn Keegan, Hartford Courant, 25 Sep. 2026 That disturbs Masters, an auto mechanic who moved out of the mobile home park before the 2021 floods. — Ren Larson, ProPublica, 2 Sep. 2026 Traffic between somebody else's router and somebody else's laptop, say in a random coffee shop or an airport, can provide the radio field that your body disturbs to create your specific signature. — New Atlas, 26 Aug. 2026 Tilling or plowing in the summer disturbs the soil's delicate ecosystem and exposes moist soil to rapid water loss. — Mary Marlowe Leverette, Southern Living, 24 June 2026 The pier in Michigan City’s Washington Park disturbs the natural flow of sand along the lakeshore, creating new land east of the pier but starving beaches to the west, an erosion problem repeated by other manmade structures that jut out into Lake Michigan. — Doug Ross, Chicago Tribune, 15 June 2026 Regardless, there’s a clear symbolism to Clark empathizing and embracing a bloated externalization of his own inchoate fury until someone with an outside perspective disturbs his peace, and that fury breaks loose and devours him. — Tasha Robinson, Vulture, 29 May 2026 The idea that there can be any kind of misalignment between them, though, disturbs her. — Cressida Leyshon, New Yorker, 24 May 2026 The worms thrash and move erratically with a snake-like motion that disturbs the topsoil. — Maria Braganini, CBS News, 25 Apr. 2026
Recent Examples of Synonyms for disturbs
  1. bothers
  2. removes
  3. disrupts
  4. weighs
  5. distracts
  6. relocates
  7. confuses
  8. troubles
Verb
  • This is why the sameness creeping into corporate communications right now bothers me more than the question of whether AI can write a good press release.
    — Amanda Simonian, Forbes.com, 25 Sep. 2026
  • Kurt's key takeaways What bothers me most about DoppelCart is how convincing these fake stores can look.
    — Kurt Knutsson, FOXNews.com, 18 Sep. 2026
Definition of bothers
Verb
  • That distinction removes a major uncertainty surrounding the material.
    — Aamir Khollam, Interesting Engineering, 26 Sep. 2026
  • Pre-toning with a purple toner removes yellow shades, which prepares the hair to accept the silver dye.
    — Maggie Ryan, Flow Space, 25 Sep. 2026
Definition of removes
Verb
  • According to the 2025 Global Sleep Survey by the medical device company, 39% of respondents said their partner disrupts their sleep at least once a week, and 36% pointed to a partner’s snoring or loud breathing.
    — Lauren Schuster, Sacbee.com, 24 Sep. 2026
  • Yanbu, a major Red Sea oil export hub, has become particularly important as the war with Iran disrupts shipping through the Strait of Hormuz.
    — Efrat Lachter, FOXNews.com, 24 Sep. 2026
Definition of disrupts
Verb
  • Carbon fiber frame weighs just six pounds The team’s main engineering achievement was reducing the drone’s structural weight while maintaining the strength needed to carry a heavy payload.
    — Kaif Shaikh, Interesting Engineering, 30 Sep. 2026
  • The teen, who stands 6 feet tall and weighs around 200 pounds, beat the woman with his firearm and then violated her, according to law enforcement sources.
    — Colin Mixson, New York Daily News, 28 Sep. 2026
Definition of weighs
Verb
  • Often, undercapitalization is a major challenge for new franchisees and distracts from operations.
    — Angelo Chavez, Forbes.com, 4 Sep. 2026
  • Scientists now are spending an increasing amount of time worrying about keeping the lights on and people employed, which ultimately distracts from time spent doing research.
    — Abdullah Shihipar, STAT, 1 Sep. 2026
Definition of distracts
Verb
  • Without that owner, consolidation just relocates the chaos into a single box.
    — Erik Huberman, Forbes.com, 25 Sep. 2026
  • The Connecticut Sun, which moved from Orlando to Connecticut to play at the Mohegan Sun Arena in 2003, are playing their final game Thursday night before the franchise relocates to Houston next season.
    — Lori Riley, Hartford Courant, 24 Sep. 2026
Definition of relocates
Verb
  • This confuses each Nyota but also those around them, who note that the Nyotas have rather quickly assumed new hairstyles but also that neither is behaving quite like herself.
    — Keith Phipps, Vulture, 24 Sep. 2026
  • Retreat to the previous paragraph if the question confuses you.
    — John Tamny, Forbes.com, 18 Aug. 2026
Definition of confuses
Verb
  • But the equity market’s rise this year has been driven primarily by just a few sectors, which troubles some analysts.
    — Steve Kopack, NBC news, 28 Sep. 2026
  • The aspect of the painting that troubles me most, though, is the sleeve of Amélie’s dress.
    — Zachary Fine, New Yorker, 31 Aug. 2026
Definition of troubles

Browse Nearby Words

disturbingly
disturbs
disunion
See all Nearby Words

Cite this Entry

“Disturbs.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/disturbs. Accessed 2 Oct. 2026.

Copy Citation
Last Updated: - Updated example sentences
Love words? Need even more definitions?

Subscribe to America's largest dictionary and get thousands more definitions and advanced search—ad free!

More from Merriam-Webster

Word of the Day

Listen to the pronunciation of heterodox

See Definitions and Examples »

Popular in Grammar & Usage

See More

Do You Need a New Language Peeve?

More Commonly Mispronounced Words

Merriam-Webster’s Great Big List of Words You Love to Hate

'A' or 'an'? What about before 'h'? An Indefinite Article Guide

Why is '-ed' sometimes pronounced at the end of a word?
See More

Popular in Wordplay

See More

7 Great Ways to Say 'Great'

The Longest Long Words List

9 Words That Sound Like Insults But Aren't

The Words of the Week - Oct. 2

16 Food Words Recently Added to the Dictionary
See More

Popular

See More

Do You Need a New Language Peeve?

7 Great Ways to Say 'Great'

The Longest Long Words List
See More

Games & Quizzes

See All
Play Quordle: Guess all four words in a limited number of tries. Each of your guesses must be a real 5-letter word.
Quordle Can you solve 4 words at once?
Play Blossom: Solve today's spelling word game by finding as many words as you can using just 7 letters. Longer words score more points.
Blossom Pick the best words!
Play Missing Letter: a crossword with a twist. Each of the 25 puzzle words start with a different letter of the alphabet. Which letter is missing?
The Missing Letter A daily crossword with a twist
name tags
Words Named After People Quiz Find out who’s behind "leotard," "morphine," an...
See All