dispersal

nounC2Occasional — familiar, but not everyday · #10,871 of 15,258leans written

Other forms: dispersals

Dispersal is the scattering of things over a wide area. Seed dispersal, the dispersal of the crowd, dispersal order.

In ecology it is how plants and animals reach new ground, and seed dispersal by birds is why woodland spreads at all. In policing, a dispersal order is a power to break up a gathering in a named area.

Definitions of dispersal

1noundispersalThe scattering of things over a wide area.C2
“The dispersal of the family after the war meant the brothers never met again.”

dispersal is a scattering.

Where it comes from

Latin
dispersus
Middle French
disperser
English
disperse
English, today
dispersal

Built from

dispergō · Latin — to scatter abroad, disperse
dis- · Latin — apart
spargō · Latin — to scatter

From disperse + -al. disperse comes from Middle French disperser, from Latin dispersus, past participle of dispergō (“to scatter abroad, disperse”), from dis- (“apart”) + spargō (“to scatter”); see sparse.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practise this word

dispersal in the wild

In genera such as Bidens the pappus has hooks that function in mechanical dispersal.
Pappus (botany)
The pappus of the dandelion plays a vital role in the wind-aided dispersal of its seeds.
Pappus (botany)
Technically, dispersal is defined as any movement that has the potential to lead to gene flow.
Biological dispersal
The act of dispersal involves three phases: departure, transfer, and settlement.
Biological dispersal
Seed dispersal comes in different modes such as gravity, force, water, wind, and by animals.
Seed dispersal

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From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.

Related words

the spargō family

spa disperse

dispersal — used about once every 7,462 pages · #10,871 · point at the bar for the others

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