Definition of "disorder" []

• A lack of order or regular arrangement; confusion. (noun)
• A breach of civic order or peace; a public disturbance. (noun)
• An ailment that affects the function of mind or body: eating disorders and substance abuse. (noun)
• To throw into confusion or disarray. (verb-transitive)
• To disturb the normal physical or mental health of; derange. (verb-transitive)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "If order is the rule in the universe, and what we term disorder is a particular kind of order e.g., an order too complex for us to describe at the present time, then many of our perceptions in science and life will need to change accordingly."
• "We evidently see that motion, however regular in our mind, that order, however beautiful to our admiring optics, yields to what we term disorder, to that which we designate frightful confusion, as soon as new causes, not analogous to the preceding, either disturb or suspend their action."
• "At that time, depression became more legitimized as "real" because of the effectiveness of Prozac, which showed that this disorder is a chemical imbalance, not the person just being lazy."