dysfunctional

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

Two decades earlier, Lindy, for her part, made a smash, and a packet, with “My Rainbow Starts With Black,” a Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, seemingly based on her own dysfunctional family, and its Oscar-winning film adaptation.

From Los Angeles Times • Apr. 8, 2026

A self-assured, naive young woman joins a dysfunctional theater company in Beryl Bainbridge’s darkly comic novel of mishaps and maturity.

From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 3, 2026

He justified this view by citing a dysfunctional banking system, a highly unstable currency, the absence of the rule of law guaranteeing private property, the failure of the centrally planned economy, and "completely dilapidated" infrastructure.

From Barron's • Mar. 21, 2026

Over time they can enter a dysfunctional condition called T cell exhaustion, where their ability to eliminate threats declines.

From Science Daily • Mar. 5, 2026

And this touches me, somehow, even more than the presumptive lie about his assets: that this place he has described as so morbidly dysfunctional could amount to a real and compelling human community.

From "Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America" by Barbara Ehrenreich