maladjustment

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   a failure or inability to adapt successfully to one's social environment or the ordinary demands of life, often resulting in emotional or behavioral difficulties

   The study examined how prolonged isolation can contribute to social maladjustment.

2. 2
   noun

   a poor or faulty adjustment, especially of a mechanism or setting

   The technician traced the vibration to a slight maladjustment of the drive belt.

Formed in 1823 from mal- ("badly, wrongly") + adjustment. Mal- comes through French from Latin male ("badly"). The word first denoted any faulty adjustment; by the end of the nineteenth century it had developed its psychological sense of unsuccessful adaptation to one's social environment.

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