How to use discordant in a sentence

16 example sentences · adjective, noun

Discordant means not in accord or harmony; conflicting, incompatible. Example: “Dikes may be discordant to country rock if they intrude at a high angle to the bedding.”

Examples of discordant by meaning

adjectiveOf sounds: harsh, jarring; specifically (music), of musical notes or tunes: not in harmony; dissonant, inharmonious.

After a discordant patch, it's in tune again – even if some auditionees, as ever, are not.2021 September 15, Laura Martin, “How Talent Shows Became TV’s Most Bizarre Programmes”, in BBC Online, archived from the original on 22...

adjectiveOf a rock formation or other land feature, or its alignment: cutting across or transverse to neighbouring features.

Dikes may be discordant to country rock if they intrude at a high angle to the bedding.

nounA thing which is not in accord or harmony with one or more other things.

In the process of dismemberment it must often happen that the true individuality of a soil is lost, so that schemes of laboratory classification sometimes arbitrarily separate agricultural similars and unite agricultural discordants.1910 November 17, “The International Agrogeological Congress at Stockholm”, in Nature: A Weekly Illustrated Journal of Science, volume 85...

More sentences with discordant

Some of the usage prescriptions improved clarity and were kept; others that yielded discordant violations of idiom were eventually revised.From the entry idiom
The musician swung the bass over his head like an axe and smashed it into the amplifier, creating a discordant howl of noise.From the entry bass
Second, a discordant presentation does not preclude the diagnosis of conjoined twins, particularly in xiphopagus twins.1995, L.G. Keith, Multiple Pregnancy: Epidemiology, Gestation, and Perinatal Outcome. From the entry xiphopagus
Jimi’s guitar plays flat against the major chord, giving a strange, almost discordant effect.1978–81, David Henderson, ‛Scuse Me While I Kiss the Sky: The Life of Jimi Hendrix (1983), page 104. From the entry sotto
Autechre’s soundscape is crowded and discordant, determinedly antipop.2008 April 17, Jon Pareles, “An Antipop Soundscape of Beats, Riffs, Throbs and Hisses, Full of Ideas”, in New York Times. From the entry antipop
It was like a great discordant symphony ringing out from the world; like a klaxoning of a million million cracked bells.2005 January, John Shirley, chapter 16, in Constantine: A Novelization [...] Based on Characters from the DC Comics/Vertigo Hellblazer…. From the entry klaxon
Then suddenly the men were jarred by a discordant ptooey-splat!1989, Ann Gabriel, South Texas. From the entry ptooey
However, discordant dykes, locally disrupted in boudins, attest to both late dykes and post-crystallization movement of the carbonate rocks.1986, David P. Gold, Carbonatites, Diatremes, and Ultra-alkaline Rocks in the Oka Area, Quebec: May 22-23, 1986. From the entry boudin
Its first movement is a sedate, haunting, almost melodramatic nocturne, but before too long the concerto changes gear and becomes energetic, discordant, feral.2019 April 10, qntm, “CASE HATE RED”, in There Is No Antimemetics Division, →ISBN, page 137. From the entry nocturne
When disengaged from this business, the women spin yarn, kiss their innamoratos or dance to the discordant sounds of an old fiddle.1970 [1843], A[lec] D[erwent] Hope, quoting John Grant, A Midsummer Eve’s Dream: Variations on a Theme by William Dunbar, New York, N.Y.…. From the entry innamorato
Poets in particular make use of onomatopœia—discordant or melodious sounds, heavy accented syllables or light unaccented syllables—to suit the ideas to be expressed.1910, William Murison, English Composition: With Chapters on Precis Writing, Prosody and Style, University Press, page 126. From the entry onomatopœia
One Sunday evening, after a long and discordant weekend, SDR wrote to “Dearest Franklin and dearest Eleanor” about her views regarding “noblesse oblige” and “honneur oblige.”1993, Blanche Wiesen Cook, Eleanor Roosevelt, volumes 1: The Early Years, 1884–1933, Penguin, →ISBN. From the entry SDR
This would have struck a discordant note in a place where the meadows are beribboned with late-summer wildflowers and where the transformed barn offers soothing intimacy without sacrificing visual drama.2021 September 2, Julie Lasky, “A Creative Hudson Valley Retreat Is Listed for $2.75 Million”, in The New York Times. From the entry beribboned

Meaning of discordant

adjective Not in accord or harmony; conflicting, incompatible.
adjective Of people: disagreeing with each other; dissenting, quarrelsome.
adjective Of sounds: harsh, jarring; specifically (music), of musical notes or tunes: not in harmony; dissonant, inharmonious.

Full definition of discordant

Questions about discordant in a sentence

How do you use discordant in a sentence?: Discordant is used as an adjective and noun. For example: “Dikes may be discordant to country rock if they intrude at a high angle to the bedding.”
What is a short sentence with discordant?: “Autechre’s soundscape is crowded and discordant, determinedly antipop.”
What does discordant mean?: Discordant means not in accord or harmony; conflicting, incompatible.

Adapted from Wiktionary: discordant (page history and authors) and the entries each sentence comes from. Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws chose the sentences, left out offensive ones and quotations older than 1900, and marked the word in each. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated: 2026-09-02

Cite this page: “How to use discordant in a sentence.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/sentences/discordant. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.