DISSENSION

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does dissension mean? 

• DISSENSION (noun)
  The noun DISSENSION has 2 senses:

1. disagreement among those expected to cooperate

2. a conflict of people's opinions or actions or characters

  Familiarity information: DISSENSION used as a noun is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• DISSENSION (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Disagreement among those expected to cooperate

Classified under:

Nouns denoting communicative processes and contents

Synonyms:

discord; dissension

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

disagreement (the speech act of disagreeing or arguing or disputing)

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

confrontation (discord resulting from a clash of ideas or opinions)

division; variance (discord that splits a group)

Derivation:

dissent (be of different opinions)

Sense 2

Meaning:

A conflict of people's opinions or actions or characters

Classified under:

Nouns denoting stable states of affairs

Synonyms:

disagreement; dissension; dissonance

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

conflict (a state of opposition between persons or ideas or interests)

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

disunity (lack of unity (usually resulting from dissension))

divide (a serious disagreement between two groups of people (typically producing tension or hostility))

Derivation:

dissent (be of different opinions)

 Context examples 

He said, “the Yahoos were known to hate one another, more than they did any different species of animals; and the reason usually assigned was, the odiousness of their own shapes, which all could see in the rest, but not in themselves. He had therefore begun to think it not unwise in us to cover our bodies, and by that invention conceal many of our deformities from each other, which would else be hardly supportable. But he now found he had been mistaken, and that the dissensions of those brutes in his country were owing to the same cause with ours, as I had described them. For if,” said he, “you throw among five Yahoos as much food as would be sufficient for fifty, they will, instead of eating peaceably, fall together by the ears, each single one impatient to have all to itself; and therefore a servant was usually employed to stand by while they were feeding abroad, and those kept at home were tied at a distance from each other: that if a cow died of age or accident, before a Houyhnhnm could secure it for his own Yahoos, those in the neighbourhood would come in herds to seize it, and then would ensue such a battle as I had described, with terrible wounds made by their claws on both sides, although they seldom were able to kill one another, for want of such convenient instruments of death as we had invented. At other times, the like battles have been fought between the Yahoos of several neighbourhoods, without any visible cause; those of one district watching all opportunities to surprise the next, before they are prepared. But if they find their project has miscarried, they return home, and, for want of enemies, engage in what I call a civil war among themselves.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)

Even Jordan's party, the quartet from East Egg, were rent asunder by dissension.

(The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald)