dysfunctional
adjective
Paul C. LightTom EwingWarren E. BuffettChris Mooney
Did you know?
Dysfunctional and dysfunction have been used for almost a hundred years, often in medical writing ("brain dysfunction", "a dysfunctional liver") but also by social scientists ("a dysfunctional city council", "diplomatic dysfunction"). But they only really entered the general vocabulary in the 1980s, when therapists and talk-show hosts began talking about dysfunctional families. The signs of family dysfunction turned out to be numerous, and it soon began to seem as if pretty much all our families could be called dysfunctional.
Examples of dysfunctional in a Sentence
Murtada Elfadl, Variety, 8 Mar. 2025
Grindstone and Roadside Attractions open dysfunctional family crime comedy Riff Raff on just over 1,000 screens.
—Jill Goldsmith, Deadline, 28 Feb. 2025
This is the motto of the dysfunctional family at the center of the new Netflix comedy Running Point.
—Judy Berman, TIME, 27 Feb. 2025
In the film, which arrives in theaters on February 28, Coolidge plays Ruth, the ex-wife of Harris’s character, as their rather dysfunctional and extended family finds themselves in deep trouble.
—Jeff Conway, Forbes, 27 Feb. 2025
See All Example Sentences for dysfunctional
Cite this Entry
“Dysfunctional.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/dysfunctional. Accessed 13 Mar. 2025.
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