disfluency

noun

dis·​flu·​en·​cy dis-ˈflü-ən(t)-sē 

variants or dysfluency

1

: an involuntary disruption in the flow of speech that may occur during normal childhood development of spoken language or during normal adult speech but is most often symptomatic of a speech impairment

especially : a disorder of vocal communication that is marked by frequent involuntary disruption or blocking of speech (as by repetition of all or part of a word or by prolonging vocal sounds) and typically has an onset during childhood : stuttering

2

: an act or instance of disfluency : stutter

disfluent

dis-ˈflü-ənt 

adjective

or dysfluent

a disfluent child

dysfluent speech

Examples of disfluency in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

Additionally, slowing down the reading speed to deal with the disfluency may also increase the likelihood of spotting errors in a text. —Carla Delgado, Discover Magazine, 9 Oct. 2021

Because font disfluency may benefit information retention, a team of designers and behavioral scientists from the RMIT University created Sans Forgetica, a hard-to-read font that was specifically designed to invoke deeper processing. —Carla Delgado, Discover Magazine, 9 Oct. 2021

While 2 percent of children stutter, according to the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association, most outgrow this disfluency, often without intervention. —Anna Leahy, Washington Post, 20 Jan. 2023

Overall, these mixed results warrant further research into the relationship between font disfluency and memory. —Carla Delgado, Discover Magazine, 9 Oct. 2021

In contrast, in studies of the beauty-in-averageness effect, the original faces are generally not known or not recognizable in the blend, which precludes any classification disfluency. —Seriously Science, Discover Magazine, 30 Sep. 2013

Google is constantly updating its Google Assistant with new voice samples to better understand people with accents or speech disfluencies. —Kevin Wheeler, USA TODAY, 6 Jan. 2020

People who stutter experience an excessive amount of disfluency, or involuntary speech disruptions, stumbling over at least 10 percent of their words. —Rachel Hoge, Washington Post, 5 Nov. 2017

Word History

First Known Use

1961, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Medical Definition

disfluency

noun

dis·​flu·​en·​cy

variants or dysfluency

(ˌ)dis-ˈflü-ən(t)-sē 

plural disfluencies

1

: an involuntary disruption in the flow of speech that may occur during normal childhood development of spoken language or during normal adult speech but is most often symptomatic of a speech impairment

especially : a disorder of vocal communication that is marked by frequent involuntary disruption or blocking of speech (as by repetition of all or part of a word or by prolonging vocal sounds) and typically has an onset during childhood : stuttering

2

: an act or instance of disfluency : stutter

disfluent adjective

or dysfluent

(ˌ)dis-ˈflü-ənt 

a disfluent child

dysfluent speech