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disenchanting

disenchanting

7.5
Making someone or something seem less special by showing the truth
  • adjective
  • /ˌdɪsɪnˈtʃæntɪŋ/
translation icon : desilusionante
  • The magician's final trick was so clever that it was almost disenchanting when the audience realized it was just an illusion.

Examples

  • The documentary revealed the harsh realities of the industry, leaving many viewers feeling disenchanting about the glamorous images they had seen before.

  • Near the poem's close, this same disenchanting pattern of promise and disappointment appears again:

    Fiction book (1995)
  • Its disenchanting effects are patent.

    Academic text (1995)
  • So it when you start to see things like that, it makes, I find it disenchanting because it reminds me how fickle crowd mentality is.

  • Once I learned the truth about the corporate policies, I found the whole experience disenchanting instead of exciting.

Synonyms

to disillusion
vsdisenchanting
18 6.4

To make someone realize that something they believed is not true

emphasizes loss of appeal and magic when truth appears
to disenchant
vsdisenchanting
2 7.1

Make someone stop believing an idea that is not true or realistic

focuses on revealing truth that makes things less appealing
disillusioning
vsdisenchanting
2 6.7

Making someone see that something is not as good as it seemed

stresses revealing truth that removes magical or attractive illusions
to undeceive
vsdisenchanting
1 9.9

Make someone stop believing something false

is broader and stresses truth that makes things less appealing

Antonyms

22 3.7

Very attractive in a way that feels like magic

How Disenchanting

disenchanting
7.5
disappointing
190 1.4
revealing
38 4.0

Surface Forms

disenchanting positive

Morphology

disenchanting = disenchant (semi-transparent) = dis + enchant + ing

The adjective is a regular participial formation from the verb 'disenchant', meaning 'causing disenchantment'.

Etymology

Disenchanting breaks into dis- meaning 'not' and enchant meaning 'to put under a spell', and the chant part means 'to sing', like the words used in old magic. So, something disenchanting takes away the 'magic' or a false idea and makes you feel disappointed or more realistic.