Dysfunctional vs Defective - What's the difference?
dysfunctional | defective |
Having one or more defects.
* {{quote-magazine, date=2013-03
, author=
, title=The Smallest Cell
, volume=101, issue=2, page=83
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lacking some forms; e.g., having only one tense or being usable only in the third person.
A person considered to be defective.
* {{quote-news, year=2007, date=January 15, author=Bernard E. Harcourt, title=The Mentally Ill, Behind Bars, work=New York Times
, passage=There were many more kinds of mental institutions at mid-century, ones for “mental defectives and epileptics” and the mentally retarded, psychiatric wards in veterans hospitals, as well as “psychopathic” and private mental hospitals. }}
As adjectives the difference between dysfunctional and defective
is that dysfunctional is functioning incorrectly or abnormally while defective is having one or more defects.As a noun defective is
a person considered to be defective.dysfunctional
English
Usage notes
Used frequently in regard to social functioning: dysfunctional family'', ''dysfunctional behavior.Antonyms
* eufunctional * functionalDerived terms
* dysfunctionality * dysfunctionallydefective
English
Adjective
(en adjective)citation, passage=It is likely that the long evolutionary trajectory of Mycoplasma went from a reductive autotroph to oxidative heterotroph to a cell-wall–defective degenerate parasite. This evolutionary trajectory assumes the simplicity to complexity route of biogenesis, a point of view that is not universally accepted.}}
Usage notes
* Nouns to which "defective" is often applied: merchandise, goods, part, component, product, equipment, gene, unit, construction, design, drug, memory, wiring, machine, device, instrument, hardware, software, vehicle.Synonyms
* faultyNoun
(en noun)citation