discordant
UK /dɪsˈkɔːdn̩t/ · US /dɪsˈkoɹdənt/ adjective, noun
Forms discordants discordaunt
- adjective Not in accord or harmony; conflicting, incompatible.
- adjective Of people: disagreeing with each other; dissenting, quarrelsome.
- adjective (also figurative) Of sounds: harsh, jarring; specifically (music), of musical notes or tunes: not in harmony; dissonant, inharmonious.
- adjective (geology, physical geography, originally US) Of a rock formation or other land feature, or its alignment: cutting across or transverse to neighbouring features. “Dikes may be discordant to country rock if they intrude at a high angle to the bedding.”
- adjective Of a coastline: having bands of different types of rock running transversely to the coast, leading to the formation of alternating bays and headlands.
- adjective (chiefly genetics) Of two similar subjects, especially twins: differing in some characteristic.
- adjective (mathematics, statistics) Of figures, etc.: having opposite signs (for example, positive and negative).
- noun (chiefly in the plural) A thing which is not in accord or harmony with one or more other things.
Synonyms
absonant absonous at variance disconsonant discordable inaccordant inconcinnous incongruent inconsonant nonconcordant unwedded agonistic argumentative bangsome bellicose belligerent contentious debateful disputatious disputative disharmonious dissonant inharmonic
Antonyms
accordant concordant consonant nondiscordant undiscordant undiscording
Etymology
From Late Middle English discordaunt (“(adjective) not in accord or harmony; dissonant; (noun) element not in accord or harmony”), from Anglo-Norman descorda(u)nt, discorda(u)nt, Middle French descordant, discordant, and Old French descordant, discordant (“of people: quarrelsome; of things: in disagreement, at variance”) (modern French discordant), an adjective use of the present participle of descorder, discorder (“to fail to agree or harmonize, clash, disagree, discord”), from Latin discordāre, the present active infinitive of discordō (“to disagree, quarrel with”), from discors (“discordant, different, inharmonious”) + -ō (suffix forming regular first-conjugation verbs). Discors is derived from dis- (“prefix meaning ‘apart, in two’”) + cor (“heart; (figurative) mind; soul”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *ḱḗr (“heart”)). By surface analysis, discord (noun) + -ant (suffix forming adjectives from nouns with the sense ‘exhibiting [the condition or process described by the noun]’).
Webster’s 1913
- adjective Disagreeing; incongruous; being at variance; clashing; opposing; not harmonious.
- adjective Dissonant; not in harmony or musical concord; harsh; jarring; as, discordant notes or sounds.
Etymology [OE. discordant, descordaunt, OF. descordant, discordant, F. discordant, p. pr. of discorder, OF. also, descorder. See Discord, n.]
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “discordant”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details