displeasing
/dɪsˈpliːzɪŋ/
displeasing adjective: unattractive, dislikable, objectionable. Also the present participle and gerund of displease.
Adjective
displeasing (comparative more displeasing, superlative most displeasing)
- Unattractive, dislikable, objectionable.
- After the hurricane, the building was structurally sound but aesthetically displeasing.
- Mr. Hyde was pale and dwarfish, he gave an impression of deformity without any nameable malformation, he had a displeasing smile, he had borne himself to the lawyer with a sort of murderous mixture of timidity and boldness, and he spoke with a husky, whispering and somewhat broken voice; […]1886 January 5, Robert Louis Stevenson, “Search for Mr. Hyde”, in Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, London: Longmans, Green, and Co., →OCLC, page 25
Also used as
displeasing is also the present participle and gerund of displease.
Forms of displeasing
| comparative | more displeasing |
|---|---|
| superlative | most displeasing |
Origin of displeasing
Perhaps a calque of Old French desplaisant, from the verb desplere (“to displease”). By surface analysis, dis- + pleasing.
Words formed from displeasing
Questions about displeasing
- What does displeasing mean?
- Displeasing means unattractive, dislikable, objectionable.
- What part of speech is displeasing?
- Displeasing is an adjective.
- How do you pronounce displeasing?
- Displeasing is pronounced /dɪsˈpliːzɪŋ/.
Words near displeasing in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: displeasing (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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