disarray
/dɪsəˈɹeɪ/
disarray verb: to throw into disorder; to break the array of.
Verb
disarray (third-person singular simple present disarrays, present participle disarraying, simple past and past participle disarrayed)
- To throw into disorder; to break the array of.
- Who with fiery steeds / Oft disarray'd the foes in battle ranged.1726, Elijah Fenton, Odyssey
- To take off the dress of; to unrobe.
- So as she bad, that witch they disaraid1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book I, Canto VIII”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC, stanza 46
Noun
disarray (countable and uncountable, plural disarrays)
- A lack of array or regular order; disorder; confusion.
- So, in order to apply a good medicine to the hurt parts of the wildish psyche, in order to aright relationship to the archetype of the Wild Woman, one has to name the disarrays of the psyche accurately.1992, Clarissa Pinkola Estés, Women Who Run with the Wolves, Myths and Stories of the Wild Woman Archetype, page 9
- Tottenham pushed forward in an attempt to complete the recovery - but only succeeded in leaving themselves wide open to Chelsea's attacks and Redknapp's side ended in total disarray.2012 April 15, Phil McNulty, “Tottenham 1-5 Chelsea”, in BBC
- Confused attire; undress; dishabille.
disarray meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Malayalam and Kannada
disarray in Hindi
- To throw into disorder; to break the array of
- व्यूहभंग vyūhbhaṅg
disarray in Tamil
- ஒழுங்குக் குலைவு, குழப்பம், சீர்குலை, சீர்குலைவு
disarray in Malayalam
- chaos, disorder, confusion
- അവ്യവസ്ഥ, താറുമാറ്, ക്രമക്കേട്, വഴിക്കേട്, ക്രമഭംഗം, ക്രമരാഹിത്യം
- disarrange, disorganize, disorder
- താറുമാറാക്കുക, കുഴക്കുക, ക്രമഭംഗം വരുത്തുക, അടുക്കും മുറയും തെറ്റിക്കുക, അലങ്കോലപ്പെടുത്തുക, ക്രമം തെറ്റിക്കുക
disarray in Kannada
- ತಾರುಮಾರು, ಅಡ್ಡಾದಿಡ್ಡಿ, ಅವ್ಯವಸ್ಥೆ
Examples of disarray in a sentence
- He was very amused to note the disarray of his opponents.
- The worsted army fled in disarray.
- If you wish to leave your affairs in rotten mishmashy cluttersome disarray . . .
Antonyms of disarray
Forms of disarray
| Verb | |
|---|---|
| third-person singular present | disarrays |
| present participle | disarraying |
| past participle | disarrayed |
| past | disarrayed |
| Noun | |
| plural | disarrays |
Origin of disarray
From Middle English disareyen (“to disarray”), from Middle French desarroyer, from Old French desareer, from des- (“dis-”) + areer (“to array”).
Words formed from disarray
Words that rhyme with disarray
Questions about disarray
- What does disarray mean?
- Disarray means to throw into disorder; to break the array of.
- What is disarray in Hindi?
- Disarray in Hindi is व्यूहभंग (vyūhbhaṅg). See Disarray meaning in Hindi.
- What part of speech is disarray?
- Disarray can be a verb or a noun.
- How do you pronounce disarray?
- Disarray is pronounced /dɪsəˈɹeɪ/ (UK).
- What is the past tense of disarray?
- The past tense of disarray is disarrayed.
Words near disarray in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: disarray (page history and authors); disarray (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); disarray (Olam, E.K. Kurup corpus) (dataset and license); disarray (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-disarray.wav.
Cite this entry: “disarray.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/disarray. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.