Disillusionment

//ˌdɪsɪˈluːʒənmənt// noun

noun ·Moderate ·College level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A feeling of disappointment, akin to depression, arising from the realization that something is not what it was expected or believed to be, possibly accompanied by philosophical angst from having one's beliefs challenged. countable, uncountable

    "But till I am thirty, I know that my youth will triumph over everything- every disillusionment, every disgust with life."

  2. 2
    freeing from false belief or illusions wordnet
  3. 3
    The act of freeing from an illusion; the state of being freed therefrom. countable, uncountable

    "It is a very wholesome and regenerating change which a man undergoes when he "comes to himself." […] It is a process of disillusionment. The scales have fallen away."

Synonyms

All synonyms
disappointmentdisenchantmentdisillusionbafflementbalkban

Example

More examples

"Once you start dating the sleazy old professor, disillusionment sets in."

Etymology

From dis- + illusion + -ment.

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.