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.

One reason for the confusion is that healthy macrophages already show some of the same molecular features seen in senescent cells, making it difficult to distinguish between normal and dysfunctional states.

From Science Daily • Apr. 16, 2026

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

In the early 2000s, television viewers first discovered "Malcolm in the Middle," the hilarious tale of a teenager trying to survive the antics of his dysfunctional family.

From Barron's • Apr. 8, 2026

It shattered the Windsor mantra of “never complain, never explain,” stripping back the mystique of monarchy, revealing a somewhat dysfunctional family trapped inside an institution it struggles to manage.

From The Wall Street Journal • Mar. 11, 2026

A crew composed entirely of eight amped-up, overtly aggressive oarsmen will often degenerate into a dysfunctional brawl in a boat or exhaust itself in the first leg of a long race.

From "The Boys in the Boat: Nine Americans and Their Epic Quest for Gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympics" by Daniel James Brown