as in frustrating
to lessen the courage or confidence of
we were disheartened by the news that our grandmother was seriously ill
Synonyms & Similar Words
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Antonyms & Near Antonyms
as in discouraging
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Dissimilar Words
Example Sentences
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Recent Examples of disheartening
Sami Khan, Mercury News, 9 Sep. 2025
Rohan Banerjee, Time, 23 Aug. 2025
So, the idea of the teen driver owing an additional $4,200 on the SUV after paying fees and putting money down ($1,500-$2,000) is disheartening to say the least.
—Charles Singh, USA Today, 11 Aug. 2025
The thrill of bringing a vision to life often comes with long hours, late nights, heavy responsibilities—and disheartening mistakes.
—Expert Panel®, Forbes.com, 8 Aug. 2025
Verb
Seeing that textbook go to waste felt very disheartening.
—Sami Khan, Mercury News, 9 Sep. 2025
Adjective
But for a teenager itching to see more of Britain—and eventually the world—that lack of curiosity was disheartening.
—Rohan Banerjee, Time, 23 Aug. 2025
So, the idea of the teen driver owing an additional $4,200 on the SUV after paying fees and putting money down ($1,500-$2,000) is disheartening to say the least.
—Charles Singh, USA Today, 11 Aug. 2025
The thrill of bringing a vision to life often comes with long hours, late nights, heavy responsibilities—and disheartening mistakes.
—Expert Panel®, Forbes.com, 8 Aug. 2025
Recent Examples of Synonyms for disheartening
Verb
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Those concerns were not discouraging people online and around me from embracing the reformer machine.—
Leah Asmelash,
CNN Money,
7 Sep. 2025
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This would include more stoutly discouraging the delusion and possibly being completely upfront and clamping down on it.—
Lance Eliot,
Forbes.com,
2 Sep. 2025
Adjective
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For some—for me—the experience of certain kinds of anxiety has a disconcerting synesthetic quality.—
Scott Stossel,
The Atlantic,
9 Sep. 2025
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The disconcerting answer is that nobody knows.—
Lance Eliot,
Forbes.com,
7 Sep. 2025
Adjective
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But the drum sound wasn’t nearly as dismaying as the studio’s piano, which kept slipping out of tune.—
Peter Ames Carlin,
Rolling Stone,
13 Aug. 2025
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With a six-game deficit in the American League wild card hunt entering play on Monday, the Angels may be only a few series away from repeating their dismaying playbook from 2023.—
Jackson Roberts,
MSNBC Newsweek,
12 Aug. 2025
Adjective
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Watching what’s unfolding around us can be demoralizing.—
Stacey Abrams,
Time,
28 Aug. 2025
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Those are the kinds of demoralizing stats that break Hern’s heart.—
Michael Ashley,
Forbes.com,
28 Aug. 2025
Adjective
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Some folks harbor a dispiriting conviction that governments are unable to handle the simplest task.—
Teri Sforza,
Oc Register,
22 Aug. 2025
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Let’s establish all of that up front after the Carolina Panthers’ dispiriting, 20-3 exhibition loss at Houston Saturday.—
Scott Fowler,
Charlotte Observer,
17 Aug. 2025
Adjective
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Biden's library team has the daunting task of raising money for the 46th president's legacy project at a moment when his party has become fragmented about the way ahead and many big Democratic donors have stopped writing checks.—
Arkansas Online,
Arkansas Online,
7 Sep. 2025
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Pynchon’s daunting masterpiece, a white whale of a Great American Novel, is stuffed with pun-tastic songs, rocket science and World War II-era occultism.—
John Lopez,
HollywoodReporter,
6 Sep. 2025
Adjective
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In Wind River, the investigation into Natalie's death is hindered by a troubling legal gap.—
Allison DeGrushe,
Entertainment Weekly,
8 Sep. 2025
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In addition—and even more troubling—there remains a question of what this means for the work environment at the DOJ.—
Andrew Binns,
Forbes.com,
8 Sep. 2025
Adjective
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Darrisaw will be McCarthy's primary blindside blocker, so his missing the game would have been troublesome for the second-year passer.—
James Brizuela,
MSNBC Newsweek,
6 Sep. 2025
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Let’s aim to stick with the straightforward nomenclature of AI psychosis as the proper phrasing and not meander into a plethora of troublesome variations.—
Lance Eliot,
Forbes.com,
2 Sep. 2025
Cite this Entry
“Disheartening.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/disheartening. Accessed 13 Sep. 2025.
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