Meaning & use
disillusioned
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Meaning
adjectivecomparable
Feeling disappointed because something you believed in turned out to be false or less good than expected.
Grammar: Often followed by 'with' or 'by': disillusioned with politics, disillusioned by the results.
Patterns
- disillusioned with something
- disillusioned by something
- feel disillusioned
After years of broken promises, many voters are disillusioned with the government.
She became disillusioned with her job when her ideas were ignored.
He felt disillusioned by the team's poor performance.
Word forms
| comparative | more disillusioned |
|---|---|
| superlative | most disillusioned |
Common combinations
- disillusioned with
- Many young people are disillusioned with traditional politics.
- disillusioned by
- She was disillusioned by the lack of support from her colleagues.
- increasingly disillusioned
- Voters have become increasingly disillusioned over the past decade.
- bitterly disillusioned
- After the scandal, he was bitterly disillusioned with the organization.
Synonyms and how they differ
- disappointed
- Disappointed is a general feeling of sadness because something was not as good as hoped; disillusioned specifically means losing a belief or ideal.
- disenchanted
- Disenchanted is very close but often suggests losing enthusiasm for something you once admired; disillusioned focuses on discovering a false belief.
- cynical
- Cynical means doubting people's motives in general; disillusioned means you personally had an ideal that was shattered.
Opposites
Word family
- disillusion verb
- To make someone realize that a belief is false.
- disillusionment noun
- The feeling of being disappointed after discovering the truth.
Commonly confused: disillusioned or dissolution?
disillusioned vs dissolution
Dissolution means the ending or closing of something, such as a marriage or company. Disillusioned is about lost beliefs and disappointment.
Practice
After the scandal, many fans became ______ with the team's management.
Choose one answer.
Disillusioned fits because fans lost their belief in the team's management. Dissatisfied is possible but less precise; dissolved is a verb form and does not fit the adjective slot; disillusion is a verb or noun, not an adjective.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “disillusioned”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.