Word.ws English Dictionary

dysnomy

dysnomy noun: bad legislation; the enactment of bad laws.

Noun

dysnomy (countable and uncountable, plural dysnomies)

  1. (rare) Bad legislation; the enactment of bad laws.
    • This is a dysnomy that should never find its way to the statute book. In the hands of a partisan and unscrupulous Governor it can be used to oppress his political opponents.1894 December 19, “The Metropolitan Police”, in The Fairfield News and Herald, volume 49, number 19, Winnsboro, S.C.: News and Herald Company, page 2
    • Only a few years elapsed when the Legislature, encouraged by this malign ruling, passed a law creating cities of the fourth, fifth, sixth and seventh class each. Again the people appealed to the Supreme Court. The situation became alarming. There was no telling where this kind of dysnomy would lead...1901 January 17, “Norristown Letter”, in The Bucks County Gazette, volume 28, number 24, Bristol, Pa., page 3

Examples of dysnomy in a sentence

  • There was no telling where this kind of dysnomy would lead to or when it would cease.1901 January 17, “Norristown Letter”, in The Bucks County Gazette, volume 28, number 24, Bristol, Pa., page 3:
  • Opponents of the tax law are pointing to it as another sample of the dysnomy brought about by the Oregon system of lawmaking.1923 December 6, “No Stampede from Oregon”, in The Oregon Daily Journal, volume 21, number 231, Portland, Oregon, page 10:

Forms of dysnomy

pluraldysnomies

Origin of dysnomy

From dys- + -nomy.

Questions about dysnomy

What does dysnomy mean?
Dysnomy means bad legislation; the enactment of bad laws.
How do you use dysnomy in a sentence?
There was no telling where this kind of dysnomy would lead to or when it would cease.
What part of speech is dysnomy?
Dysnomy is a noun.
What is the plural of dysnomy?
The plural of dysnomy is dysnomies.

Words near dysnomy in the dictionary

  1. dysnomia
  2. Dysnomian
  3. dysnomias
  4. dysnomic
  5. dysnomics
  6. dysnomy
  7. dysodil
  8. dysodile
  9. dysodiles
  10. dysodilic
  11. dysodils

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: dysnomy (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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