disorders

1. 1
   noun

   Plural of disorder.

   The clinic specializes in autoimmune disorders that affect the joints.

   Sleep disorders often go undiagnosed for years.

   Note

   The plural is most at home in medicine. A malfunction of body or mind is always counted, so clinics deal in disorders of the mind and of the joints. The plain lack of order can stay a mass noun: a room is in disorder, not in disorders. Public unrest can go either way, so disorders in the capital means separate outbreaks. The same spelling serves the present-tense verb, as in grief disorders the mind.

2. 2
   verb

   Third-person singular simple present indicative of disorder.

   Note

   A verb that always needs an object: something disorders something else. It either throws a mind into confusion or knocks a sequence out of its proper order. With nothing to act on, English usually turns to the noun and says the files fell into disorder. Only a singular subject takes this -s form. Plural subjects and modals take bare disorder, and the identical spelling belongs to the plural noun.

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