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Disjunctive comes to us from disjunctus, the past participle of the Latin verb disjungere, meaning "to disjoin," and it is commonly used to describe things marked by breaks or separation, as in "a disjunctive account of events." Some people may be familiar with disjunctive conjunctions-like or, either… or, but, and though-which express an alternative or opposition between the meanings of the words connected. The opposite of such conjunctions are copulative conjunctions, which unite words or phrases-the principal one in English being and. In linguistics, disjunctive may also denote a vowel inserted in the body of a word to aid in pronunciation. For example, the schwa sometimes found in athlete is considered disjunctive.
Examples of disjunctive in a Sentence
Hilton Als, The New Yorker, 18 Oct. 2024
Her disjunctive narrative structure merely retreads magical realism — in which Flora’s gaggle of daughters and housekeeper Italia (Carol Duarte), who hides a biracial child, might be superstitious illusions, a way to sentimentalize what is troublesome.
—Armond White, National Review, 3 Apr. 2024
In his second year at Cambridge, Gunn fell in love with an American, Mike Kitay, who became his lifelong partner, or rather companion, for, rather to Kitay’s chagrin, the disjunctive Gunn was not cut out for a monogamous relationship.
—Mark Ford, The New York Review of Books, 25 May 2022
The full conquest of Ukraine would, on the other hand, be rightly seen as a truly disjunctive event.
—David Faris, The Week, 22 Feb. 2022
Jude, however, doesn’t merge these disjunctive threads into a totalizing whole.
—Mark Olsen, Los Angeles Times, 26 Nov. 2021
Boats filled with men wrapped and huddled against the cold toss on spiky blue water; oars and bayonets radiate in a disjunctive pattern.
—Karen Wilkin, WSJ, 26 Sep. 2020
Nearly all the clips have been stripped of dialogue, preserving the continuity of Hitchcock's narrative but also turning each conversation into an amusing exercise in disjunctive editing.
—Justin Chang, chicagotribune.com, 26 Apr. 2018
This time, as the speeches of local authorities proclaim unity and harmony, the editing splinters the action into a series of discrete, disjunctive shots.
—New York Times, 7 June 2018
Jason Farago, New York Times, 8 June 2017
Dictionary Entries Near disjunctive
Cite this Entry
“Disjunctive.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/disjunctive. Accessed 21 Nov. 2024.
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