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dialect (n.) a variation of a language (In the country’s remote, mountainous regions, the inhabitants spoke a dialect that the country’s other inhabitants had difficulty understanding.)

diaphanous (adj.) light, airy, transparent (Sunlight poured in through the diaphanous curtains, brightening the room.)

didactic 1. (adj.) intended to instruct (She wrote up a didactic document showing new employees how to handle the company’s customers.) 2. (adj.) overly moralistic (His didactic style of teaching made it seem like he wanted to persuade his students not to understand history fully, but to understand it from only one point of view.)

diffident (adj.) shy, quiet, modest (While eating dinner with the adults, the diffident youth did not speak for fear of seeming presumptuous.)

diffuse 1. (v.) to scatter, thin out, break up (He diffused the tension in the room by making in a joke.) 2. (adj.) not concentrated, scattered, disorganized (In her writings, she tried unsuccessfully to make others understand her diffuse thoughts.)

dilatory (adj.) tending to delay, causing delay (The general’s dilatory strategy enabled the enemy to regroup.)

diligent (adj.) showing care in doing one’s work (The diligent researcher made sure to check her measurements multiple times.)

diminutive (adj.) small or miniature (The bullies, tall and strong, picked on the diminutive child.)

dirge (n.) a mournful song, especially for a funeral (The bagpipers played a dirge as the casket was carried to the cemetery.)

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disaffected (adj.) rebellious, resentful of authority (Dismayed by Bobby’s poor behavior, the parents sent their disaffected son to a military academy to be disciplined.)

disavow (v.) to deny knowledge of or responsibility for (Not wanting others to criticize her, she disavowed any involvement in the company’s hiring scandal.)

discern (v.) to perceive, detect (Though he hid his emotions, she discerned from his body language that he was angry.)

disclose (v.) to reveal, make public (The CEO disclosed to the press that the company would have to fire several employees.)

discomfit (v.) to thwart, baffle (The normally cheery and playful children’s sudden misery discomfited the teacher.)

discordant (adj.) not agreeing, not in harmony with (The girls’ sobs were a discordant sound amid the general laughter that filled the restaurant.)

discrepancy (n.) difference, failure of things to correspond (He was troubled by the discrepancy between what he remembered paying for the appliance and what his receipt showed he paid for it.)

discretion (n.) the quality of being reserved in speech or action; good judgment (Not wanting her patient to get overly anxious, the doctor used discretion in deciding how much to tell the patient about his condition.)

discursive (adj.) rambling, lacking order (The professor’s discursive lectures seemed to be about every subject except the one initially described.)

disdain 1. (v.) to scorn, hold in low esteem (Insecure about their jobs, the older employees disdained the recently hired ones, who were young and capable.) 2. (n.) scorn, low esteem (After learning of his immoral actions, Justine held Lawrence in disdain.)

disgruntled (adj.) upset, not content (The child believed that his parents had unjustly grounded him, and remained disgruntled for a week.)

disheartened (adj.) feeling a loss of spirit or morale (The team was disheartened after losing in the finals of the tournament.)

disparage (v.) to criticize or speak ill of (The saleswoman disparaged the competitor’s products to persuade her customers to buy what she was selling.)

disparate (adj.) sharply differing, containing sharply contrasting elements (Having widely varying interests, the students had disparate responses toward the novel.)

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dispatch (v.) to send off to accomplish a duty (The carpenter dispatched his assistant to fetch wood.)

dispel (v.) to drive away, scatter (She entered the office as usual on Monday, dispelling the rumor that she had been fired.)

disperse (v.) to scatter, cause to scatter (When the rain began to pour, the crowd at the baseball game quickly dispersed.)

disrepute (n.) a state of being held in low regard (The officer fell into disrepute after it

was learned that he had disobeyed the orders he had given to his own soldiers.)

dissemble (v.) to conceal, fake (Not wanting to appear heartlessly greedy, she dissembled and hid her intention to sell her ailing father’s stamp collection.)

disseminate (v.) to spread widely (The politician disseminated his ideas across the town before the election.)

dissent 1. (v.) to disagree (The principal argued that the child should repeat the fourth grade, but the unhappy parents dissented.) 2. (n.) the act of disagreeing (Unconvinced that the defendant was guilty, the last juror voiced his dissent with the rest of the jury.)

dissipate 1. (v.) to disappear, cause to disappear (The sun finally came out and dissipated the haze.) 2. (v.) to waste (She dissipated her fortune on a series of bad investments.)

dissonance (n.) lack of harmony or consistency (Though the president of the company often spoke of the company as reliant solely upon its workers, her decision to increase her own salary rather than reward her employees revealed a striking dissonance between her alleged beliefs and her actions.)

dissuade (v.) to persuade someone not to do something (Worried that he would catch a cold, she tried to dissuade him from going out on winter nights.)

distend (v.) to swell out (Years of drinking beer caused his stomach to distend.)

dither (v.) to be indecisive (Not wanting to offend either friend, he dithered about which of the two birthday parties he should attend.)

divine (adj.) godly, exceedingly wonderful (Terribly fond of desserts, she found the rich chocolate cake to be divine.)

divisive (adj.) causing dissent, discord (Her divisive tactics turned her two friends against each other.)

divulge (v.) to reveal something secret (Pressured by the press, the government finally divulged the previously unknown information.)