disillusioned
Britishadjective
Explanation
People who are disillusioned have lost their illusions. This is usually meant in a negative way, as disillusioned people tend to be a little bitter. When you're disillusioned, you're wiser but not necessarily happier: you've learned from experience that life isn't always how you'd like it to be. Getting divorced could leave you disillusioned about marriage and love. Finding out a teacher cheated could leave you disillusioned about education. We all are disillusioned at some point, and it's usually a bit depressing. Often, ignorance really is bliss.
Vocabulary lists containing disillusioned
Power Prefix: dis-
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
“We were so disillusioned after that first day.”
From Los Angeles Times • Apr. 1, 2026
If there is a central dramatic question at play, it’s when this poor soul will be disillusioned, and whether that will come too late.
From The Wall Street Journal • Mar. 19, 2026
The bloody events of January have further disillusioned and frustrated Pezeshkian’s supporters.
From Barron's • Feb. 28, 2026
Decades of this have disillusioned the working and middle classes into expecting nothing can or will change, that it’s every man, woman and child for themselves.
From Salon • Feb. 23, 2026
Tens and fifties of them were flung into the gunny sacks, and the sacks filled with tired, frightened, and disillusioned frogs, with dripping, whimpering frogs.
From "Cannery Row" by John Steinbeck
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
