Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
Definition: Disturbing |
DisturbingAdjective1. Causing distress or worry or anxiety; "distressing (or disturbing) news"; "lived in heroic if something distressful isolation"; "a disturbing amount of crime"; "a revelation that was most perturbing"; "a new and troubling thought"; "in a particularly worrisome predicament"; "a worrying situation"; "a worrying time". Source: WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved. |
Date "disturbing" was first used in popular English literature: sometime before 1350. (references) |
Synonyms: DisturbingSynonyms: distressful (adj), distressing (adj), perturbing (adj), troubling (adj), worrisome (adj), worrying (adj). (additional references) |
Crosswords: Disturbing |
| English words defined with "disturbing": Antiguggler ♦ black humor, black humour, Breach of peace ♦ derangement, disconcertingly, distressful, distressing, disturbance, Disturbation, disturbingly ♦ frighteningly ♦ haunting, honker ♦ overthrow ♦ peace, Perturbative, perturbing, Proximate cause, public security ♦ racket, raucous, rowdy ♦ scarily ♦ tilter, troubling ♦ upset ♦ worrisome, worrying. (references) |
| Specialty definitions using "disturbing": Agony, Angels, Arents tap, ARGUMENT ♦ Blindfold ♦ Compulsive Behavior, contracted orifice, CUR ♦ Ecstasy ♦ Flying Machine ♦ horizontally divided, horizontally split ♦ microphonic effect, microphonism, microphony, Mourning ♦ Peacock, Pest ♦ quiescent operating point ♦ resolution limit ♦ split on the horizontal centerline. (references) |
| Domain | Usage | |
Screenplays | This is God. You are disturbing the natural order of things and will be severely punished (Hollow Man; writing credit: Gary Scott Thompson; Andrew W. Marlowe) I find your lack of faith disturbing. (Episode IV: A New Hope; writing credit: George Lucas.) Oh, I'm sorry- I didn't realize I was disturbing you. You see, every once in a while I suddenly find myself dancing (Top Hat; writing credit: Allan Scott; Dwight Taylor) Before we go any further, I'd just like to point out how disturbing it is that you equate eating a block of cheese with some sort of bachelor paradise (Seinfeld; writing credit: Andreas Lenze; Bea Schmidt) But instead it was dark and disturbing. Like that movie -- Police Academy (The Simpsons; writing credit: Artur Brauner; Paul Hengge) | |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | ||
| Domain | Title | ||
Books |
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Theater & Movies | |||
Music |
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Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |||
| Thumbnail | Description & Credit | Thumbnail | Description & Credit |
 | Watering ramp installed on local farm pond to prevent cattle from disturbing riparian area. Georgia. Credit: Jeff Vanuga. |  | District Conservationist Carman Westerfield inspects a watering ramp installed on local farm pond to prevent cattle from disturbing riparian area. Georgia. Credit: Jeff Vanuga. |
 | Cutting down the hickory tree and disturbing the crow's nest. Credit: Library of Congress. |  | Disturbing a martin's nest. Credit: Library of Congress. |
 | Madame, he said, bowing, I owe you a thousand apologies for disturbing you at this hour. Credit: Library of Congress. |  | House hunter: "Hope I'm not disturbing you". Credit: Library of Congress. |
Source: pictures compiled by the editor from various references; see picture credits. | |||
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| "Do not disturb" by Jan Tautenhahn Commentary: "Not disturbing advice at a door in a hotel." | "Arial's Many Moods 3" by Erika Thorpe Commentary: "Arial engaged in a disturbing phone call....it turns out there has been a terrible mistake, she is not the winner of the Publisher's Clearing House grand prize sweepstakes." |
Source: photographs selected by the editor, with permission from the photographers. | |
| Author | Quotation |
Oscar Wilde | Man is made for something better than disturbing dirt. |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | |
| Title | Author | Quote |
Last Chance To See | Douglas Adams | There is something profoundly disturbing about watching an eye that is watching you, particularly when the eye that is watching you is almost the same size as your eye, and the thing that it is watching you out of is a lizard |
Les Miserables | Hugo, Victor | He felt that it was a change in a happy life, so happy that he dared not stir for fear of disturbing something |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | ||
| Subject | Topic | Quote |
Health | Some behavior management techniques aim to influence the entire spectrum of disturbing behaviors. (references) | |
Disturbing behaviors, such as wandering and agitation, beset many people as the disease progresses. (references) | ||
Avoid coming into contact with rodents and rodent burrows or disturbing dens (such as pack rat nests). (references) | ||
Business | In September Xu was sentenced to 10-years' reform through labor for disturbing public order. (references) | |
Civil Liberties | China | Offenses related to membership in unapproved religious groups are classified as crimes of disturbing the social order. (references) |
Thailand | Reasons for censoring films include violating moral and cultural norms and disturbing the public order and national security. (references) | |
Tunisia | On February 3, RSF journalist Robert Menard was deported for disturbing the public order by distributing illegal information. (references) | |
Human Rights | Nepal | This act and its many amendments cover crimes such as disturbing the peace, vandalism, rioting, and fighting. (references) |
Czech Republic | The third, who was off duty at the time of the attack, was charged with disturbing the peace and inflicting bodily harm. (references) | |
Seychelles | Although the players and fans faced possible charges of disturbing the peace, no charges were filed as a result of the incident. (references) | |
Minorities | Croatia | Police in Osijek pressed charges against nine of the assailants, but also charged the five Roma with disturbing the peace. (references) |
Czech Republic | Police arrested the assailant and charged him with "defamation of a nation, race, or conviction" as well as disturbing the peace. (references) | |
Political Economy | Zambia | Moreover, 2001 is an election year and populist rhetoric and policies have become common, disturbing the business community. (references) |
Source: compiled by the editor from ICON Group International, Inc.; see credits. | ||
| Speaker | Term | Phrase(s) |
Andrew Jackson | 1829-1837 | Nor is it impossible that such a course of legislation would introduce once more into our national councils those disturbing questions in relation to the tariff of duties which have been so recently put to rest. |
John F. Kennedy | 1961-1963 | The present state of our economy is disturbing. |
Jimmy Carter | 1977-1981 | We have also seen and encouraged a national movement of parents and citizens committed to reversing the very serious and disturbing trends of adolescent drug abuse. |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | ||
| "Disturbing" is generally used as a lexical verb (-ing form) -- approximately 50.60% of the time. "Disturbing" is used about 833 times out of a sample of 100 million words spoken or written in English. Its rank is based on over 700,000 words used in the English language. Some parts-of-speech are not covered due to the samples used by the British National Corpus. (note: percents less than one-hundredth of one percent have been omitted) |
| Parts of Speech | Percent | Usage per 100 Million Words | Rank in English |
| Lexical Verb (-ing form) | 50.6% | 422 | 13,494 |
| Adjective (general or positive) | 49.16% | 410 | 13,752 |
| Noun (proper) | 0.12% | 1 | 339,140 |
| Noun (common) | 0.12% | 1 | 339,140 |
| Total | 100.00% | 833 | N/A |
Source: compiled by the editor from several corpora; see credits.
Expressions using "disturbing": be disturbing ♦ disturbing circuit ♦ disturbing conductor ♦ disturbing environmental factor ♦ disturbing field ♦ disturbing force ♦ disturbing moment ♦ disturbing order ♦ disturbing reflection ♦ disturbing the peace of the dead ♦ disturbing transmitter ♦ equivalent disturbing current ♦ equivalent disturbing voltage. Additional references. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. |
| The following statistics estimate the number of searches per day across the major English-language search engines as identified by various trade publications. Hyperlinks lead to commercial use of the expression at Amazon.com. |
| Language | Translations for "disturbing"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses. | |
Albanian | shqetësues (anxious, disorderly, disquieting, hairy, perturbing, pesky, pestilent, plaguy, vexatious, worrisome), ngatërrues (mucker). (various references) | |
Arabic | مقلق (bothering, disconcerting, disquieting, distressful, distressing, perturbing, troublesome, troubling, upsetting, worrisome, worrying), متعب (annoying, arduous, bothersome, burdensome, exhaustive, fatiguing, inconvenient, laborious, onerous, strenuous, tired, tiresome, tiring, toilsome, troublesome, trying, vexing, wearisome, weary), مزعج (aggravating, annoying, bore, bothering, bothersome, disagreeable, disquieting, disturber, galling, grating, harsh, horrid, importunate, importune, intruder, irksome, irritating, mean, mischievous, offensive, pain in the neck, pestilential, plaguy, provoking, terrible, tiresome, troubled, troublesome, ugly, uncomfortable, unpleasant, upsetting, vexatious, vexing, wicked, worrisome), مضايق (annoying, bothersome, disagreeable, irksome, irritating, tease, teaser, troublesome, vexatious, vexing), مربك (agitating, confounding, confusing, embarrassing, perplexing, staggering). (various references) | |
Bulgarian | обезпокоителен (alarming, disquieting, startling, troublesome, uncanny, worrisome). (various references) | |
Chinese | 干扰 (Disturb, Disturbance, Disturbed). (various references) | |
Czech | znepokojivý (disquieting), zneklidòující (disquieting, distressing), rušivý (disruptive, troublesome). (various references) | |
Danish | til centrifugalspredere og pendulspredere kan man faa en vindskaerm for at undgaa vindens forstyrrende indvirkning (with spinning disc(fertilizer distributor)and pendulum fertilizer distributors wind shields are provided to prevent disturbing wind influence), potentialstøj (disturbing potential), forstyrrende sender (disturbing transmitter, interfering transmitter, unwanted transmitter), forstyrrende refleksion (disturbing reflection), forstyrrende omgivende faktor (disturbing environmental factor), forstyrrende leder (disturbing conductor), forstyrrende felt (disturbing field), forstyrrende faenomen (disturbing phenomenon), forstyrrelsesstroem (disturbing current), forstyrrelsesmoment (disturbance torque, disturbing moment, perturbing torque), falsk stroem (disturbing current). (various references) | |
Dutch | verstorende-omgevingsfactor (disturbing environmental factor), verstorende reflectie (disturbing reflection), verstorend veld (disturbing field), valse stroom (disturbing current), storende zender (disturbing transmitter, interfering transmitter, unwanted transmitter), storende stroom (disturbing current), storende geleider (disturbing conductor), storend kanaal (disturbing circuit), storend circuit (disturbing circuit), storend bijverschijnsel (disturbing phenomenon), stoorzender (disturbing transmitter, interfering transmitter, unwanted transmitter), stoorpotentiaal (disturbing potential), rolmoment (disturbing moment), push-pull stoorspanning (push-pull disturbing voltage), centrifugaalstrooiers en pendelstrooiers zijn voorzien van een windscherm teneinde hinderlijke invloed van de wind te voorkomen (with spinning disc(fertilizer distributor)and pendulum fertilizer distributors wind shields are provided to prevent disturbing wind influence). (various references) | |
Finnish | vaikuttaa häiritsevästi (have a disturbing effect), häiritsevä ympäristötekijä (disturbing environmental factor), häiritsevä lähetin (disturbing transmitter, interfering transmitter, unwanted transmitter), häiritsevä johdin (disturbing conductor), häiriöpotentiaali (disturbing potential), häiriömomentti (disturbing moment). (various references) | |
French | dérangeant, troublant (disarranging, distractedly, distracting), inquiétant (disquieting, distressing), impressionnant. (various references) | |
German | beunruhigend (alarming, disconcerting, disquieting, fazing, flurrying, harassing, perturbing, perturbingly, uncomfortable, uneasy, unsettling, worrying). (various references) | |
Greek | ενοχλητικός (grating, irritating, pesky, troublesome, trying), ανησυχητικός (alarming, startling). (various references) | |
Hebrew | הפרת הסדר (breach of the peace, disturbing order). (various references) | |
Hungarian | nyugtalanító (disconcerting, disquieting, troublesome, unnerving, vexing), izgató (agitator, excitant, excitative, exciter, exciting, irritant, irritative, piquant, prompter, stimulant, stimulating, stirrer, stirring, thrilling, upsetting). (various references) | |
Italian | turbato (dazed, distraught, disturbed, perplexed, upset), sconvolgente (devastating, upsetting), inquietante (alarming, disquieting, harassing, unsettling, worrying, worryingly). (various references) | |
Japanese Kanji | 不穏分子 (disturbing elements). (various references) | |
Japanese Katakana | ふおんぶんし (disturbing elements). (various references) | |
Korean | 교란 (Harassing). (various references) | |
Pig Latin | isturbingday.(various references) | |
Portuguese | distribuidor de adubos do tipo centrífugo de discos,também chamados distribuidores centrífugos,são providos de um guarda-vento para assegurar a não perturbação da distribuição pelo vento (with spinning disc(fertilizer distributor)and pendulum fertilizer distributors wind shields are provided to prevent disturbing wind influence), transmissor interferente (disturbing transmitter, interfering service, interfering transmitter, unwanted transmitter), reflexão perturbadora (disturbing reflection), momento de rotação (bending moment, disturbing moment, moment of a couple, moment of a force, moment of a torque, moment of force, torque, turning moment, twisting moment), factor perturbador local (disturbing environmental factor), campo perturbador (disturbing field). (various references) | |
Romanian | stânjenitor (cumbersome, cumbrous), rãscolitor. (various references) | |
Russian | волнующий (alarming, dramatic, emotional, emotive, moving, thrilling, worrying). (various references) | |
Serbo-Croatian | uznemirujući (disconcerting, disquieting, harassing, upsetting, vexatious, vexing), uznemiravajući (acerbate, alarming, bothersome). (various references) | |
Spanish | transmisor interferente (disturbing transmitter, interfering service, interfering transmitter, unwanted transmitter), reflexión perturbadora (disturbing reflection), potencial perturbador (disturbing potential), momento perturbador (disturbing moment), momento de rotación (disturbing moment), factor perturbador local (disturbing environmental factor), emisor interferente (disturbing transmitter, interfering transmitter, unwanted transmitter), corriente perturbadora (disturbing current), conductor interferente (disturbing conductor), campo perturbador (disturbing field). (various references) | |
Swedish | störande (bothering, disturbance, irksome, offensive). (various references) | |
Turkish | rahatsız etme (annoyance, baiting, botheration, irritating), rahatsız edici (annoying, besetting, fraught, haunting, hot, inconvenient, irritant, irritating, noisy, pesky, plaguesome, rough, strident, uncomfortable, uneasy, unrestful, worrying), karışıklık çıkaran, huzur bozucu (subversive). (various references) | |
Turkmen | howsalaly (alarming), galagoply. (various references) | |
Welsh | aflonyddus. (various references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various translation references. | ||
| Language | Date | Source | Esther Chapter 11, Verse 5 |
| Middle English | 1395 | Wyclif | And this was his sweuene. There semeden voisis, and noisis, and thundris, and erthe quaues, and disturbing vp on the erthe. |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |||
| Language | Esther Chapter 11, Verse 5 |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
Derivations | |
Words beginning with "disturbing": disturbingly. (additional references) | |
| |
"Disturbing" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: distoring. (additional references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references). | |
| # of Phoneme Matches | Pronunciation | Word(s) rhyming with "disturbing" (pronounced di'ster"bing) |
| 4 | -er" b i ng | curbing. |
| 3 | -b i ng | absorbing, bobbing, bribing, clubbing, dabbing, describing, drubbing, dubbing, ebbing, gabbing, grabbing, hobbing, hobnobbing, jabbing, lobbing, nabbing, prescribing, probing, ribbing, robbing, rubbing, scrubbing, snubbing, sobbing, stabbing, subbing, subscribing, tabbing, throbbing, transcribing, tubing, webbing. |
Source: compiled by the editor (additional references); see credits. | ||
Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams | |
| Words within the letters "b-d-g-i-i-n-r-s-t-u" | |
-2 letters: birdings, bruising, bruiting, bursting, striding. | |
-3 letters: birding, bruting, bundist, busting, disturb, dustbin, dusting, inburst, nitrids, ridings, rusting, subring, suiting, sunbird, tidings, tubings, ungirds. | |
-4 letters: biding, bindis, binits, biting, brings, bruins, bruits, brunts, bundts, burins, busing, digits, dingus, during, grinds, grunts, indris, nitrid, nudist, riding, rising, rutins, siding, siring, siting, string, strung, tiding, tiring. | |
| Words containing the letters "b-d-g-i-i-n-r-s-t-u" | |
+2 letters: distributing, disturbingly. | |
+3 letters: subordinating. | |
+4 letters: redistributing, subdistricting. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro. | |
| 1. Definition 2. Synonyms 3. Crosswords 4. Usage: Modern | 5. Usage: Commercial 6. Images: Slideshow 7. Images: Photo Album 8. Images: Digital Art | 9. Quotations: Familiar 10. Quotations: Fiction 11. Quotations: Non-fiction 12. Quotations: Speeches | 13. Usage Frequency 14. Expressions 15. Expressions: Internet 16. Translations: Modern | 17. Bible Trace 18. Derivations 19. Rhymes 20. Anagrams | 21. Bibliography |
Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
