What does disreputation mean?
Disreputation is a noun denoting the state of having a bad reputation — a condition of lost credibility, disgrace, or ill repute in the eyes of others. It is formed from 'reputation' with the negative prefix 'dis-', and functions as the longer, more formal counterpart to the far more common word 'disrepute'. In practice, disreputation is rare in modern English: it tends to surface in formal, legalistic, or deliberately elevated prose, often in phrases like 'fall into disreputation' or 'bring into disreputation'. Typical contexts involve institutions, professions, or public figures whose conduct has damaged their standing — a company whose accounting scandal left it in disreputation, or a practice that fell into disreputation after being widely discredited. Writers today will usually reach for 'disrepute', 'disgrace', or ' discredit'; knowing disreputation nonetheless rewards readers of older literature and formal argument.
nounThe state or condition of having a bad reputation; loss of good standing or credit in the eyes of others.
- The state of having a bad reputation; discredit or ill repute.
"The scandal plunged the once-respected firm into disreputation from which it never fully recovered."
"The senator's financial dealings brought lasting disreputation upon his office."
"By the century's end, the theory had fallen into such disreputation that few scholars would defend it publicly."
Rarely pluralized; the noun is almost always used as an uncountable mass noun referring to a state rather than countable instances.
"Such scandals rarely produce lasting disreputations for well-connected firms."
While 'disrepute' does all the work in modern English, its longer sibling 'disreputation' survives as a formal, almost legal-sounding way to describe a reputation in ruins.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Etymology of disreputation
Disreputation derives from Latin 'reputatio' (from 'reputare', literally 'to reckon over or think over'), combined with the negative prefix 'dis-'. The root 'putare', meaning 'to reckon or consider', also yields English cognates such as compute, dispute, impute, and reputation itself. The word entered English through the same Latinate channels that gave us reputation and disrepute, emerging as a fuller form expressing the negative of good repute.
How disreputation is actually used
Formal and notably rare in contemporary usage; 'disrepute' is strongly preferred in modern writing. Disreputation appears mostly in older texts, legal or institutional prose, and deliberately elevated register.
Easily confused with disreputation
Disrepute is the standard, far more common word for a state of bad repute, while disreputation is a rarer variant emphasizing the condition of an impaired reputation.