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disruptive

disruptive

12 6.1
Causing major change in a market by creating a new way of doing things
  • adjective
  • /dɪsˈrʌptɪv/
  • Specialized
translation icon : disruptivo
  • The start-up introduced a disruptive technology that transformed the way people communicate.
  • disruptive innovation
  • disruptive change
  • disruptive technology

I put on my vision board disruptive technology.

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Examples

  • SAGE members saw these national efforts as potentially disruptive to international trade.

    Academic text (1997)
  • You build up market control, the last thing you want is a disruptive product, right?

  • It's so disruptive that it will create a whole new era of technologies and innovations.

  • The Chinese government's stomach for additional disruptive change in the near future must therefore be questioned.

    Academic text (1998)
  • The first depicted foreign investments as creating conflict by bringing disruptive changes to the agricultural sector.

    Academic text (1995)
  • DNA sequencing might well be the most disruptive technology ever invented.

  • Many saw the developments as disruptive, even chaotic, and a threat to traditional notions of Russian unity.

    Academic text (1997)
  • History teaches that the most revolutionary and disruptive innovation nearly always comes from the fringe, not from corporate cubicles.

  • The retirement of baby boomers in key occupations is affecting the job market, resulting in potentially disruptive labor shortages.

    Academic text (2012)
  • Her disruptive ideas in the classroom encouraged students to think outside the box.

Synonyms

revolutionary
vsdisruptive
103 5.2

Causing a big change in how people do things

focuses on market change that displaces established competitors and creates new value networks

Antonyms

994 1.5

Following long-held customs and ways of doing things

175 2.8

Doing things in the usual way most people expect, not new or original

1 3.7

Making something steady and less likely to change suddenly

How Disruptive

revolutionary
103 5.2
disruptive
  • Specialized
12 6.1
innovative
165 5.5

Surface Forms

disruptive positive

Morphology

disruptive = disrupt (semi-transparent) = disrupt + ive

The adjective is formed from 'disrupt' + '-ive', but the specialized business/technology sense is a metaphorical extension that may not be obvious from the verb alone.

Etymology

The word disruptive comes from the parts dis- ('apart') and rupt ('break'), the same root you see in interrupt and rupture. That's why a disruptive technology 'breaks' old ways and creates big change in a market, often upsetting established companies.