Disrupting

/dɪsˈrʌptɪŋ/

verbmedium🔥Very CommonAction
1 meaning1 idiom/phrase3 questions

Definitions

1

To cause disorder or problems, to interrupt the normal course or process.

/dɪsˈrʌptɪŋ/

verbneutralmedium
Action

To interrupt an event, activity, or process by causing a problem or disturbance.

The construction work is disrupting the traffic flow.

💡 Simply: Imagine you're having a really fun party, but someone comes in and starts playing loud music everyone hates. That's disrupting! It means messing up something that was going smoothly. Like, a sudden power outage disrupts your online class.

👶 For kids: To stop something from working the way it's supposed to.

More Examples

2

Her constant talking was disrupting the class.

3

New technologies are often disruptive to established industries.

How It's Used

Technology

"The new app is disrupting the traditional taxi industry."

Business

"Economic changes are disrupting supply chains globally."

Social

"Protesters were disrupting the meeting."

Synonyms & Antonyms

Antonyms

Idioms & expressions

disruptive innovation

An innovation that creates a new market and value network and eventually disrupts an existing market and value network, displacing established market-leading firms, products, and alliances.

"The introduction of the smartphone was a disruptive innovation."

From Latin *disrumpere* ('to break apart'), from *dis-* ('apart') + *rumpere* ('to break').

The word 'disrupt' and its derivatives have been used since the late 18th century, initially to describe physical interruptions, and later, in the 20th and 21st centuries, expanded to describe market and technological impacts.

Memory tip

Imagine a road being blocked; it disrupts the flow of traffic.

Word Origin

LanguageLatin
Original meaning

"to break apart"

disrupt trafficdisrupt the processdisrupt supply chainsdisrupt a meetingdisrupt a market

Common misspellings

disruptyingdisruptingg

Usage

60%Spoken
40%Written