Standard Lemma guide

disharmonic

adj · 2 senses · updated from the 2026-07-25 local source snapshot

Definitions and examples are grouped by meaning. Pronunciation, history, word forms, translations, descendants, synonyms, antonyms, derived terms, and related words appear whenever the source provides them.

Sound

Pronunciation

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  • UK: /dɪshɑːˈmɒnɪk/

1

adj

Meaning 1

Not harmonic.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

2

adj

Meaning 2

Of or relating to a generation that is an odd number of generations distant from a particular person.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Qualifier: Australianist linguistics

Examples

  • 1979, Barry J. Blake & R. M. W. Dixon, The Handbook of Australian Languages A person is 'harmonic' with respect to his own generation and all even-numbered generations counting away from his own, and 'disharmonic' with respect to odd-numbered generations. Thus a man is disharmonic with respect to his father and his son but harmonic with respect to his grandfather and his grandson.
  • 1995, Alan Dench, Martuthunira: A Language of the Pilbara Region of Western Australia [...] there is also a special set of (non-singular first person) pronoun forms for use with disharmonic kin: those in the opposite generation set. [...] The two disharmonic pronouns are used as polite forms when the addressee and speaker are in different alternate generation sets.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

History

Etymology

Etymology tree Latin dis- Old French des-bor. Latin dis-bor. Middle English dis- English dis- English harmonic English disharmonic From dis- + harmonic.