Disperse and dissolve both break something apart, with a difference in how. Disperse is to spread a gathered crowd, substance or mass out over a wide area until it thins. Dissolve is for a solid to break down into a liquid, or for a body to be formally ended. Disperse spreads a gathering out across space; dissolve breaks a thing down in place.
Both undo a whole, but disperse spreads it and dissolve breaks it down. Disperse, from dis- 'apart' and spargere 'to scatter', spreads a gathered mass out over a wide area. Dissolve, from dis- 'apart' and solvere 'to loosen', lets a solid lose its shape into a liquid, or ends a body so it no longer stands. A crowd disperses across the streets; a sugar cube dissolves in water. One spreads a gathering wide; the other loosens a thing apart in place.
disperse
To disperse is to break up a gathering and spread it out until it thins away — movement from concentration to diffusion. A crowd disperses when a concert ends; wind disperses seeds and smoke; light disperses through a prism. The word works both ways — things disperse on their own or are dispersed by some force — but it leans toward an even, gradual spreading that often fades to nothing, rather than a sudden, random fling. What was massed in one place ends up thinly distributed across many.
dissolve
To dissolve is for a solid to break apart into a liquid until it disappears into it — sugar dissolves in water — or, by extension, for something to fade out or be formally ended (a marriage, a company, a parliament is dissolved). From the Latin dissolvere, 'to loosen apart', from solvere 'to loosen', the root of solve and solvent. A substance dissolves when its particles separate and spread evenly through the liquid — the reverse of what happens when droplets coalesce. Governments dissolve; tension dissolves; a crowd can dissolve into laughter.
| disperse | dissolve | |
|---|---|---|
| Meaning | spread out over a wide area | break down into liquid; formally end |
| How | spread wide across space | loosened apart in place, into a solvent |
| Of what | crowds, smoke, seeds, light | a solid, or a body (company, marriage) |
| Noun | dispersal / dispersion | dissolution |
| Example | The crowd dispersed. | The sugar dissolved. |
Ask whether a gathering spreads wide or a thing breaks down in place. Disperse spreads a mass out over a wide area — a dandelion head flung the width of a field. Dissolve loosens a solid apart into a liquid, or ends a body — a sugar cube clouding away in water. If a gathering spreads out across space, that is disperse; if a solid breaks down or a body is ended, that is dissolve.
disperse
- iPolice moved in to disperse the crowd before nightfall.
- iiThe morning wind dispersed the last of the smoke.
- iiiWind and birds disperse the seeds far from the parent plant.
dissolve
- iStir until the sugar dissolves completely.
- iiThe partnership was dissolved after thirty years.
- iiiThe prime minister asked the monarch to dissolve parliament.
Disperse spreads a gathering out across space; dissolve breaks a thing down where it is — a solid into liquid, or a body formally ended. They overlap loosely in a whole coming undone. Note that both can describe a crowd's end (a crowd disperses; a meeting is dissolved), but disperse stresses spreading across space, dissolve the formal ending.