Word.ws English Dictionary

perturbed

perturbed is the simple past and past participle of perturb.

Adjective

perturbed (comparative more perturbed, superlative most perturbed)

  1. Disturbed; flustered.
  2. Slightly modified.
    • The equation x² − 3.0001x + 2 = 0 is a perturbed version of x² − 3x + 2 = 0.

Meaning of perturb

Verb

perturb (third-person singular simple present perturbs, present participle perturbing, simple past and past participle perturbed)

  1. (transitive) To cause (something) to be physically disordered or disturbed; to cause confusion.
    • Mary therefore the more knaue art thou I ſay / That perturbeſt the worde of god I ſay […]a. 1521 (date written), [John Heywood], A Mery Play betwene the Pardoner and the Frere, the Curate and Neybour Pratte, London: […] Wyllyam Rastell, published 15 April 1533 (Gregorian calendar)...
  2. (transitive) To disturb (someone, their mind, etc.) mentally; to bother, trouble, upset.
    • […] I have often found / The truth thereof, in my private paſſions: / For I doe never feele my ſelfe perturb'd / VVith any generall vvords 'gainſt my profeſſion, / They doe avvake, and ſtirre me: […]1632 (first performance), Benjamin Jonson [i.e., Ben Jonson], “The Magnetick Lady: Or, Humors Reconcil’d. A Comedy […]”, in The Workes of Benjamin Jonson. The Second Volume. […] (Second Folio)...
  3. (transitive) Of a celestial body: to modify the motion or orbit of (another celestial body) by exerting a gravitational force; hence (physics), to slightly modify (the motion of an object).
  4. (transitive) To slightly modify (a set of equations or their solutions), producing deviations from a simple, easily solvable problem, in order to find an approximate solution to a problem that is more difficult to solve or otherwise unsolvable.
  5. (transitive) To influence (a process or system) so that it deviates from its normal state.
  6. (intransitive) To bother, to disturb, to trouble.
    • Thy ghoſt O father ſweete, thy greuous ghoſt, / Perturbing in my dremes hath me compeld to ſee this coaſt.1557 August 23 (date written; Gregorian calendar), Virgil, “The Syxt Booke”, in Thomas Phaer, transl., The Seuen First Bookes of the Eneidos of Virgill, Conuerted in Englishe Meter […], London: […]...
    Synonyms:
    agitate

Forms of perturbed

comparativemore perturbed
superlativemost perturbed

Words formed from perturbed

Questions about perturbed

What does perturbed mean?
Perturbed means disturbed; flustered.
What is perturbed the simple past and past participle of?
Perturbed is the simple past and past participle of perturb.
What part of speech is perturbed?
Perturbed is an adjective.

Words near perturbed in the dictionary

  1. perturbator
  2. perturbators
  3. perturbatory
  4. perturbatour
  5. perturbatours
  6. perturbed
  7. perturbedly
  8. perturbedness
  9. perturber
  10. perturbers
  11. perturbest

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: perturbed (page history and authors); perturb (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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Cite this entry: “perturbed.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/perturbed. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.