DISPARITY

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does disparity mean? 

• DISPARITY (noun)
  The noun DISPARITY has 1 sense:

1. inequality or difference in some respect

  Familiarity information: DISPARITY used as a noun is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• DISPARITY (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Inequality or difference in some respect

Classified under:

Nouns denoting attributes of people and objects

Hypernyms ("disparity" is a kind of...):

inequality (lack of equality)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "disparity"):

far cry (a disappointing disparity)

gap; spread (a conspicuous disparity or difference as between two figures)

disconnect; disconnection; gulf (an unbridgeable disparity (as from a failure of understanding))

disproportion (lack of proportion; imbalance among the parts of something)

Derivation:

disparate (including markedly dissimilar elements)

disparate (fundamentally different or distinct in quality or kind)

 Context examples 

“There can be no disparity in marriage, like unsuitability of mind and purpose.”

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

The researchers observed higher levels of lead in children with autism throughout development, with the greatest disparity observed during the period following birth.

(Baby teeth link autism and heavy metals, NIH)

Health disparities refer to differences between groups of people.

(Health Disparities, NIH: National Cancer Institute)

The overall goal is to understand the causes of health disparities in cancer and to develop effective interventions to eliminate these disparities.

(NCI Strategic Plan to Reduce Health Disparities, NCI Thesaurus)

The attachment of Frank Churchill and Jane Fairfax became commonplace, threadbare, stale in the comparison, exciting no surprize, presenting no disparity, affording nothing to be said or thought.

(Emma, by Jane Austen)

After clearing his throat, however, he proceeded thus—I confess that I do think there is a disparity, too great a disparity, and in a point no less essential than mind.

(Persuasion, by Jane Austen)

A center within the National Institutes of Health with the mission to promote minority health and to lead, coordinate, support, and assess the NIH effort to reduce and ultimately eliminate health disparities.

(National Center on Minority Health and Health Disparities, NCI Thesaurus)

Cancer registries gather a wide variety of specific information on cancer patients that can be analyzed to identify health disparity trends in cancer incidence, mortality and patient survival.

(Cancer Registry, NCI Thesaurus)

The Center's research emphases include high-priority transdisciplinary initiatives, minority health and health disparities, and systems biomedicine initiatives.

(Georgetown Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center, NCI Thesaurus)

Rather, as there was something abnormal and misbegotten in the very essence of the creature that now faced me—something seizing, surprising and revolting—this fresh disparity seemed but to fit in with and to reinforce it; so that to my interest in the man’s nature and character, there was added a curiosity as to his origin, his life, his fortune and status in the world.

(The Strange Case Of Dr. Jekyll And Mr. Hyde, by Robert Louis Stevenson)