Meaning & use
disassociation
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Meanings
noununcountableformal
The act of separating yourself from a person, group or idea, or the state of being separate.
Grammar: Usually uncountable: the disassociation from the group.
Patterns
- disassociation from something
Her public disassociation from the charity surprised donors.
Brands often seek disassociation from scandals as quickly as possible.
The disassociation of the two ideas helped the team think clearly.
noununcountablemedical
In psychology, a mental state in which a person feels cut off from thoughts, feelings or surroundings.
Grammar: Uncountable; the standard spelling here is dissociation.
Patterns
- moments of disassociation
Disassociation can be a coping response to trauma.
He described brief moments of disassociation during the accident.
Common combinations
- disassociation from
- The politician announced her disassociation from the group.
- complete disassociation
- He wanted complete disassociation from his past.
- sense of disassociation
- She felt a sense of disassociation.
- public disassociation
- The company issued a public disassociation.
- disassociation between
- There is a disassociation between the data and the claims.
Synonyms and how they differ
- dissociation
- The standard form of the same word, and usually preferred in formal and scientific writing.
- separation
- A plain, general word without any sense of distancing from a reputation.
- detachment
- Often emotional, with the sense of being uninvolved.
- estrangement
- Suggests a painful split between people who were once close.
Word family
- disassociate verb
- to separate from
- dissociate verb
- the more common form
- association noun
- a connection
- dissociation noun
- the standard noun
Commonly confused: disassociation or dissociation?
disassociation vs dissociation
The same meaning in a shorter form.
Practice
The more standard spelling of disassociation is ___.
Choose one answer.
Dissociation is the preferred, shorter form. The other options are misspellings.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “disassociation”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.