discipline
//ˈdɪsɪplɪn//
formalForms
- Plural
- disciplines
- present (v1)
- discipline
- past (v2)
- disciplined
- past participle (v3)
- disciplined
- present participle
- disciplining
- 3rd person singular
- disciplines
Definitions
1.A controlled behaviour; self-control.
- Their wildness lose, and, quitting nature's part, / Obey the rules and discipline of art.
- The masters looked unusually stern, but it was the sternness of thought rather than of discipline.
- The most perfect, who have their passions in the best discipline, are yet obliged to be constantly on their guard.
2.A specific branch of knowledge, learning, or practice.
- Economics is a messy discipline: too fluid to be a science, too rigorous to be an art.
1.To train someone by instruction and practice.
2.To teach someone to obey authority.
3.To punish someone in order to (re)gain control.
4.To impose order on someone.
Frequency
Overall
Uncommon· #2701
By learning goal
- Everyday conversation
- Rare
- General reading & writing
- Uncommon
- Academic
- Uncommon
- Literature
- Rare
Related words
Synonyms
Etymology
From Middle English [Term?]
From Anglo-Norman
From Old French descipline
From Latin disciplina (“instruction”)
From discipulus (“pupil”), influenced by disco (“to learn”)
From Proto-Indo-European *dek- (“(cause to) accept”).