noun

• A derogatory or unpleasant term used instead of a pleasant or neutral one, such as “loony bin” for “mental hospital.”.

  The opposite of euphemism

  ‘Aside from this confusion, this use of homicide as a dysphemism for suicide obscures the singular depravity of suicide terrorism.’

  More example sentences

  • ‘Of course, this comes from the rebel psychologist for whom diagnostic psychiatry is an authoritarian priesthood, and ‘insanity’ an institutional dysphemism for ‘minority.’’
  • ‘Now the honest word secondhand is relegated to the ash heap of dysphemism.’
  • ‘Holder explains that labeling a word or expression as euphemistic or dysphemistic is, of necessity, subjective; ‘one woman's euphemism is another man's dysphemism.’’
  • ‘Euphemism and dysphemism - Language is used as shield and weapon.’