disruptive

English

Etymology

From disrupt +‎ -ive. In the business sense popularized by Clayton Christensen and Joseph Bower, see 1995 citation.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /dɪsˈɹʌptɪv/, /dɪzˈɹʌptɪv/, /dɪzˈɹʊptɪv/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• (US) IPA^(key): /dɪsˈɹʌptɪv/
• Hyphenation: dis‧rup‧tive

Adjective

disruptive (comparative more disruptive, superlative most disruptive)

1. Causing disruption or unrest.

   Children who exhibit disruptive behaviour may be expelled from school.

2. (business) Causing major change, as in a market.

   disruptive technologies

   • 1995 January–February, Joseph L. Bower, Clayton M. Christensen, “Disruptive Technologies: Catching the Wave”, in Harvard Business Review‎^[1]:

     Each time a disruptive technology emerged, between one-half and two-thirds of the established manufacturers failed to introduce models employing the new architecture—in stark contrast to their timely launches of critical sustaining technologies.

   • 2005, Karl D. Schubert, CIO Survival Guide, page 222:

     […] companies tend to lose their leadership positions to companies that enter the market with a disruptive technology or market change.

Antonyms

• non-disruptive, nondisruptive

Derived terms

• chemodisruptive
• chronodisruptive
• disruptively
• disruptiveness
• disruptive selection
• disruptivity
• immunodisruptive
• photodisruptive
• undisruptive

 

Translations

causing disrupt or unrest

• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 分裂性的, 扰动的

• Dutch: storend (nl), onrustwekkend (nl)
• Finnish: häiritsevä (fi)
• French: perturbant (fr), dérangeant (fr)
• German: störend (de)
• Hungarian: bomlasztó (hu), züllesztő (hu), zavart keltő
• Italian: frantumante (it), disgregante (it)
• Korean: 산만한 (sanmanhan)
• Norwegian: splittende, nedbrytende
• Polish: rozpraszający, zakłócający spokój m
• Portuguese: diruptivo, disruptivo (pt)
• Russian: разруши́тельный (ru) (razrušítelʹnyj), опустоши́тельный (ru) (opustošítelʹnyj), подрывно́й (ru) (podryvnój) (subversive)
• Serbo-Croatian: disruptivan, razoran (sh), uznemirujući, remetilački (sh)
• Spanish: perturbante, disruptivo (es) (used in science)
• Turkish: rahatsız edici

Further reading

• disruptive innovation on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• disruptive selection on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

German

Pronunciation

• Audio:

  (file)

Adjective

disruptive

1. inflection of disruptiv:
   1. strong/mixed nominative/accusative feminine singular
   2. strong nominative/accusative plural
   3. weak nominative all-gender singular
   4. weak accusative feminine/neuter singular