as in discord
a lack of agreement or harmony
there was friction between the two sides of the family
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Recent Examples of friction
With unlimited messages and ongoing updates, it’s designed for high-volume use without friction.
—
Stackcommerce Team, PC Magazine, 25 Mar. 2026
Buckling under the weight of an already struggling business model, network executives and producers could find the risk of logistical headaches, legal exposure, and internal friction causes a cost/benefit crisis.
—Alison Foreman, IndieWire, 25 Mar. 2026
Given the friction out there, AI’s labor-market and productivity effects could be far more muted than many people (me) fear.
—Annie Lowrey, The Atlantic, 25 Mar. 2026
Part of that friction is structural, as the reality TV landscape undergoes its own contraction.
—Shamira Ibrahim, HollywoodReporter, 25 Mar. 2026
See All Example Sentences for friction
Stackcommerce Team, PC Magazine, 25 Mar. 2026
Buckling under the weight of an already struggling business model, network executives and producers could find the risk of logistical headaches, legal exposure, and internal friction causes a cost/benefit crisis.
—Alison Foreman, IndieWire, 25 Mar. 2026
Given the friction out there, AI’s labor-market and productivity effects could be far more muted than many people (me) fear.
—Annie Lowrey, The Atlantic, 25 Mar. 2026
Part of that friction is structural, as the reality TV landscape undergoes its own contraction.
—Shamira Ibrahim, HollywoodReporter, 25 Mar. 2026
See All Example Sentences for friction
Recent Examples of Synonyms for friction
Noun
-
Multitracked saxophones swarm over a pit of molten bass frequencies, slipping between sentimental consonance—you might momentarily be reminded of Vangelis’ Blade Runner score—and eerie discord.—
Philip Sherburne,
Pitchfork,
25 Mar. 2026
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But their top officials do not always agree, and some say the discord has hurt how well the agencies can serve patients and led the call center to repeatedly misjudge the severity of some calls.—
Jenny Gathright,
Washington Post,
19 Mar. 2026
Noun
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In providing that space for both music and wellness, sound healing brings audiences into a collective world for escape from both the external strife of the world and their own messy interiority.—
Britt Julious,
Chicago Tribune,
30 Mar. 2026
-
This has actually caused a lot of internal strife within the community.—
ABC News,
ABC News,
29 Mar. 2026
Noun
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Earlier Monday, Turkey's defense ministry announced that the alliance's air defenses deployed in the eastern Mediterranean had, for a fourth time during the ongoing conflict in the Middle East, intercepted an Iranian missile that had entered its airspace.—
Lucia I Suarez Sang,
CBS News,
31 Mar. 2026
-
Neither has served in an active military capacity during the current conflict.—
Adeola Adeosun,
MSNBC Newsweek,
31 Mar. 2026
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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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
Noun
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Thousands have been killed since the war began in late February, including about 1,500 people in Iran and over 1,000 in Lebanon, where Israel is moving to occupy territory.—
Christopher Cann,
USA Today,
26 Mar. 2026
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The decision is the latest step taken by Lebanon's government against Iran after the most recent Israel-Hezbollah war broke out on March 2, during which Israel's military killed several members of Iran's Revolutionary Guard in strikes around the long-suffering country.—
Arkansas Online,
Arkansas Online,
26 Mar. 2026
Noun
-
The schism runs through a deceptively simple assumption.—
Paul M. Sutter,
Scientific American,
27 Mar. 2026
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The history of religion, with its thousands of schisms and reformations, is full of pilgrims who, rather than discard their relationship with their sacred text, have found purpose, clarity, and community through defiance.—
Séamas O'Reilly,
Vulture,
26 Mar. 2026
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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Seizing the island would deal a major blow to Tehran's economy, undercutting one of its most critical revenue streams and decapitating its key means of waging economic warfare.—
Chris Boccia,
ABC News,
27 Mar. 2026
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That means waging cognitive warfare on a scale no one else has tried before.—
Anne Applebaum,
The Atlantic,
27 Mar. 2026
Cite this Entry
“Friction.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/friction. Accessed 1 Apr. 2026.
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