Meaning of disturbance in English

disturbance

noun [ C or U ]

/dɪˈstɜː.bəns/ us

/dɪˈstɝː.bəns/

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something that interrupts someone or makes someone feel worried:

Residents are tired of the disturbance caused by the nightclub.

Phone calls are the biggest disturbance at work.

violence or trouble:

There was a minor disturbance during the demonstration, but nobody was injured.

Synonyms

anarchy
ballyhoo old-fashioned slang
bedlam
chaos
commotion
confusion
disarray formal
disorder (CONFUSION)
disorganization
havoc
hoo-ha informal
hoopla (EXCITEMENT) mainly US
hullabaloo old-fashioned
kerfuffle UK informal
madness
mayhem
pandemonium
ruckus mainly US informal
rumpus informal
to-do informal
tumult formal
turmoil
uproar

cause a disturbance

to break the law by fighting or behaving extremely noisily in public:

His girlfriend was also arrested for allegedly causing a disturbance.

a condition in which someone is not thinking or behaving normally because of mental or emotional problems:

The state spent close to $6 million on prescription drugs - the bulk of which were used to treat emotional or mental disturbances.

There are many degrees of mental frailty or disturbance, ranging from mild confusion to Alzheimer's disease.

SMART Vocabulary: related words and phrases

Noise & noisy

See more results »

You can also find related words, phrases, and synonyms in the topics:

Inconvenience

(Definition of disturbance from the Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary & Thesaurus © Cambridge University Press)

disturbance | American Dictionary

disturbance

noun

/dɪˈstɜr·bəns/

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[ C ]

something that interrupts you, esp. something loud or causing trouble:

You must take care of yourself and avoid upsetting disturbances.

[ C ] earth science

A disturbance is also something that affects usual wind conditions:

The disturbance became a typhoon in the Philippine Sea and headed due west.

(Definition of disturbance from the Cambridge Academic Content Dictionary © Cambridge University Press)

Examples of disturbance

disturbance

Thus, individuals experiencing low strain are hypothesized to have a lower than average risk of illness and psychological disturbance.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

Unfortunately, complaints returned due to a disturbance of rhythm.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

The reference and disturbance signal is represented by r and d, respectively.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

Every natural system is subject to regular disturbances; those that have survived indeed must have built up some degree of resilience.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

The effects of seasonal drought on background canopy-gap disturbance in the tropics are expected to be substantially compounded by the effects of major disturbances.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

Persistent psychological disturbance was related not so much to personal loss as to the degree of damage suffered by the community as a whole.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

Alternatively, it is possible that a temporal processing disturbance alone is sufficient to explain semantic priming dysfunction in this population.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

The disturbance was higher for the exposed zone, where the crown cover of emergent trees was not closed.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

A mild disturbance event, the treefall of a single or several trees, would favour the suppressed-sapling strategy.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

The modelling confirmed that contemporary disturbance and environmental factors measured in the field are poor predictors of historical vegetation transitions on rain-forest boundaries.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

At later times these 'passive' modes become visible as pronounced wings in the disturbance spectrum in figure 10.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

Furthermore, some types of communication disturbance may be more reactive than others and this may reflect different underlying processes.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

In that disturbance, 10% of the boles were damaged and 15 months' equivalent of pine needle litter fell.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

The presence of the cooler component of electrons has a significant effect on plasma disturbances.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

Her depression resolved after a year, and she was entered into a special school for children with emotional disturbance.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

See all examples of disturbance

These examples are from corpora and from sources on the web. Any opinions in the examples do not represent the opinion of the Cambridge Dictionary editors or of Cambridge University Press or its licensors.

Collocations with disturbance

disturbance

These are words often used in combination with disturbance.

Click on a collocation to see more examples of it.

anthropogenic disturbance

There is hence a clear need for studies that focus on the relationship between anthropogenic disturbance and amphibian community structure and composition.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

atmospheric disturbance

The noise, dust and other types of atmospheric disturbance will make a mockery of it.

From the

Hansard archive

Example from the Hansard archive. Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0

behavioural disturbance

Criminal behaviour or behavioural disturbance leading to admission was also recorded, as well as previous criminal and institutional history.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

See all collocations with disturbance

What is the pronunciation of disturbance?

Translations of disturbance

in Chinese (Traditional)

干擾，滋擾, 騷亂, 紛亂…

in Chinese (Simplified)

干扰，滋扰, 骚乱, 纷乱…

in Spanish

interrupción, molestia, altercado…

in Portuguese

distúrbio, perturbação, desordem…

in more languages

in Marathi

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in Catalan

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in Gujarati

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in Italian

गोंधळ, शांतताभंग, त्रास…

妨害, 暴動, 騒動（そうどう）…

rahatsızlık, huzursuzluk, karışıklık…

tapage [masculine], perturbation [feminine], trouble [masculine]…

interrupció, molèstia, disturbi…

rel, stoornis, ordeverstoring…

ஒருவருக்கு இடையூறு விளைவிக்கும் அல்லது யாரையாவது கவலையை ஏற்படுத்தும் ஒன்று, வன்முறை அல்லது பிரச்சனை, மன அல்லது உணர்ச்சி சிக்கல்கள் காரணமாக ஒருவர் சாதாரணமாக சிந்திக்காத அல்லது நடந்து கொள்ளாத நிலை…

विघ्न, बाधा, अशांति…

ખલેલ, ઉપદ્રવ, તોફાન…

forstyrrelse, uro, afbrydelse…

oordning, bråk, störning…

gangguan, mengacau…

die Störung…

ordensforstyrrelse [masculine], bråk [masculine], forstyrrelse [masculine]…

افراتفری کھلبلی, ہنگامہ, فساد…

неспокій, порушення, перерва…

нарушение покоя, беспорядки, волнения…

ఒకరికి అంతరాయం కలిగించే లేక ఎవరైనా ఆందోళన చెందుతున్నది, హింస లేక ఇబ్బంది, మానసిక లేక మానసిక సమస్యల వల్ల ఎవరైనా సాధారణంగా ఆలోచించని లేక సాధారణంగా ప్రవర్తించని పరిస్థితి…

اضطِراب, إزعاج…

ঝামেলা, হিংসা বা ঝামেলা, এমন একটি অবস্থা যেখানে মানসিক সমস্যার জন্য স্বাভাবিকভাবে চিন্তা বা আচরণ করা যায় না…

povyk, výtržnost, vyrušení…

kerusuhan, gangguan…

ความไม่สงบ, การรบกวน, การกระทำที่ทำให้เกิดความไม่สงบ…

sự náo động, sự rối loạn, sự quấy rầy…