disparate
adjective
Did you know?
If you enjoy sorting different objects into separate categories, you're well prepared to understand the origins of disparate. The word, which first appeared in English in the 16th century, comes from the Latin verb disparāre, meaning "to divide, separate off, make different." Disparāre, in turn, comes from parāre, a verb meaning "to supply, provide, make ready or prepare." Other descendants of parāre in English include both separate and prepare, as well as repair, apparatus, and even the pugnacious vituperate ("to criticize harshly and usually publicly").
Synonyms
Examples of disparate in a Sentence
Benjamin Wallace-Wells, New Yorker, 21 July 2008
The American border with Mexico is among the most economically disparate intersections in the world, but the cities on either side of the port looked almost identical—a spread of humble brick and cinder-block homes dotting a blanket of brown hills.
—Cecilia Balli, Harper's, October 2006
I made the French lemon cream tart that Greenspan credits to Hermé and got disparate reactions. An American friend loved its creaminess and felt it had a comfortingly familiar texture; a British friend … said he missed the traditional sharp, gel-like custard.
—Tamasin Day-Lewis, Saveur, November 2006
Like these imagined cities, identical twins are identical only in their blueprints. By the time they are born, they are already disparate in countless neurological and physiological ways that mostly we cannot see.
—Frank J. Sulloway, New York Review, 30 Nov. 2006
The plan, as near as anybody outside Yahoo can make out, is to stitch all those disparate organizations into one huge Frankenstein's monster of a search engine that will strike terror into the hearts of all who behold it.
—Lev Grossman, Time, 22 Dec. 2003
disparate notions among adults and adolescents about when middle age begins
Laura Kelly, The Hill, 5 Nov. 2024
For another, the sheer number of disparate state and local jurisdictions that would need to be manipulated makes any attempt to steal an election much harder.
—Jenna Bednar, Foreign Affairs, 5 Nov. 2024
In a way, this meme draws together disparate threads that have impacted the political discourse over the last few days into one neat package.
—Callum Booth, Forbes, 4 Nov. 2024
What sets Ives apart is his masterly fusion of disparate materials: tattered old tunes, newfangled dissonances, received classical forms, self-fashioned streams of consciousness.
—Alex Ross, The New Yorker, 4 Nov. 2024
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Cite this Entry
“Disparate.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/disparate. Accessed 22 Nov. 2024.
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disparate
adjective
ˈdis-p(ə-)rət
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