Discord

Part of speech: noun

Pronunciation: /ˈdɪskɔɹd/

Definitions

1. A state of disagreement, conflict, or lack of harmony between people or things
2. A situation characterized by tension, disagreement, and disharmony among individuals or groups
3. An instance of conflict marked by a breakdown in communication and cooperation between parties or elements

Etymology: Discord began as a word about hearts, not voices. Its Latin ancestor "discordia" was built from "dis-", meaning "apart", and "cor" (genitive "cordis"), meaning "heart", so the original picture was of hearts pulling in opposite directions. Latin "discors" described people who were of different minds, and "discordia" became the noun for that state of disagreement. The word reached English through Anglo-Norman and Old French, where it was "descorde" or "descort", and it appears in Middle English around 1230 as "descorde" and "discorde". Its verb form, "discorden", came in from Old French "descorder" and Latin "discordare", so English gained both the noun and the verb from the same family of words. A separate English sense, "discord" meaning a harsh combination of sounds, came later and grew out of the same idea of things that do not agree. The heart in the word's root is the same one found in "cordial" and "courage".

Synonyms: conflict, disagreement, strife, dissonance, friction

Antonyms: harmony, agreement, unity