Meaning & use
disciplinary action
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Meanings
noununcountableformal
Official punishment or a formal process started against an employee or member who has broken the rules.
Grammar: Usually uncountable; say 'take disciplinary action against someone', not 'a disciplinary action'.
Patterns
- take disciplinary action against someone
- face disciplinary action
- disciplinary action for something
The company took disciplinary action against two workers who ignored safety rules.
If you keep arriving late, you may face disciplinary action.
The hospital began disciplinary action after the nurse was accused of stealing drugs.
nouncountableformal
A single formal step or measure of this kind taken against one person.
Grammar: Countable when you mean one particular measure among several: 'a disciplinary action'.
Patterns
- a disciplinary action against someone
Suspending him without pay was the first disciplinary action the school had taken in years.
Each disciplinary action must be recorded in the employee's file.
Common combinations
- take disciplinary action
- The manager decided to take disciplinary action after the third warning.
- face disciplinary action
- Players who bet on their own games face disciplinary action.
- disciplinary action against someone
- There were calls for disciplinary action against the officer.
- disciplinary action for misconduct
- She received disciplinary action for misconduct at the conference.
- threaten disciplinary action
- The union threatened disciplinary action if the rules were changed.
Synonyms and how they differ
- punishment
- Broader and less formal; it names the penalty itself, while disciplinary action also covers the official process leading to it.
- sanction
- More formal and often stronger; used in legal and international contexts as well as workplace ones.
- reprimand
- Much narrower: it means an official telling-off, one possible result of disciplinary action.
Opposites
Word family
- discipline noun
- Controlled behavior, or the practice of training people to obey rules.
- discipline verb
- To punish someone officially for breaking rules.
- disciplinary adjective
- Relating to punishment or the enforcing of rules, as in 'a disciplinary hearing'.
Commonly confused: disciplinary action or disciple?
disciplinary action vs disciple
Sounds similar at the start but means a follower or student of a teacher or religion.
Practice
Which sentence uses the phrase correctly?
Choose one answer.
'Take disciplinary action' is the fixed pattern, and the phrase is uncountable here, so no 'a'. 'Made' and 'did' do not collocate with this phrase, and 'a disciplinary action' is wrong in this general sense.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “disciplinary action”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.