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Dissenting opinion

Dissenting opinion: a judge's written disagreement with a court's majority decision, with no legal effect but potential future influence. Traces US Supreme Court practice from seriatim opinions to John Marshall's single-opinion custom and William Johnson's 1805 first dissent.

Dissident

Dissident: a person who publicly criticizes their government or ruling ideology, from Latin dissidens, "sitting apart." Term coined for late-1960s Soviet dissenters; today 54+ governments repress dissidents abroad.

Dissidia Duellum Final Fantasy

Dissidia Duellum Final Fantasy (ディシディアデュエルム FF) is a free-to-play mobile 3v3 Team Boss Battle Arena, the sixth Dissidia title, co-developed by Square Enix and NHN PlayArt, launched March 2026, set in modern Tokyo.

Dissidia Final Fantasy (ディシディアファイナルファンタジー)

Dissidia Final Fantasy is a Square Enix crossover fighting game series in which Final Fantasy characters battle, built around a two-resource Bravery and HP combat system.

Dissidia Final Fantasy NT (ディシディアファイナルファンタジー NT)

Dissidia Final Fantasy NT (ディシディアファイナルファンタジー NT) is a 3v3 team fighting game by Team Ninja and Square Enix, an arcade-to-PS4 port (January 2018) using the Brave/HP attack system and summon cores.

Dissimilatory nitrate reduction to ammonium

Dissimilatory nitrate reduction to ammonium (DNRA), also called nitrate ammonification, is an anaerobic microbial pathway that reduces nitrate via nitrite to ammonium, conserving fixed nitrogen in soils and sediments.

Oct 21, 2026

Dissimilatory sulfite reductase

Dissimilatory sulfite reductase (DsrAB, dSiR, EC 1.8.1.22) is the siroheme-[4Fe-4S] enzyme reducing sulfite to sulfide in anaerobic sulfate respiration, acting in reverse in sulfur oxidizers; encoded by dsrAB, a marker gene tracing sulfate reducers back over 3.5 billion years.

Dissipation

Dissipation is the irreversible conversion of organized mechanical or electrical energy into disordered thermal energy, destroying the capacity to do useful work; friction and Joule heating are examples.

Dissipative Kerr soliton

A dissipative Kerr soliton (DKS) is a short pulse of light that persists indefinitely in an optical resonator by balancing gain with loss and dispersion with nonlinearity.

Dissipative Kerr soliton microcomb

A dissipative Kerr soliton microcomb is an optical frequency comb generated by pumping a high-Q microresonator, producing a chip-scale, phase-coherent spectrum used in communications and clocks.

Dissipative molecular shuttling

Dissipative molecular shuttling is the fuel-driven back-and-forth movement of a ring-shaped molecule between binding stations on a threaded axle, sustained by continuously consuming chemical fuel.

Sep 29, 2026

Dissipative particle dynamics

Dissipative particle dynamics is a mesoscale simulation method, introduced by Hoogerbrugge and Koelman at Shell in 1992, that models fluids as coarse-grained beads conserving momentum and used for colloids, polymers, blood, and membranes.

Dissipative phase transition

A dissipative phase transition is a phase transition in the steady state of an open quantum system, arising when drive strength or dissipation crosses a critical value.

Dissipative self-assembly

Dissipative self-assembly is the formation of ordered supramolecular or colloidal structures held together by a continuous supply of energy, such as a chemical fuel or light, which disassemble when the fuel is depleted.

Dissipative soliton

A dissipative soliton is a localized pulse or beam of light that maintains its shape by balancing nonlinearity against dispersion or diffraction, and gain against loss.

Dissipative structure

A dissipative structure is an ordered pattern that forms and persists only in a system held far from thermodynamic equilibrium by a continuous energy flow.

Dissipative supramolecular polymers

Dissipative supramolecular polymers are polymer-like assemblies of small monomers held by reversible noncovalent interactions, maintained out of thermodynamic equilibrium by continuous fuel or light input and waste removal.

Dissociation (chemistry)

Dissociation in chemistry is the separation of a molecular entity into two or more entities, seen in ionic solids dissolving, acid-base equilibria measured by Ka, and covalent bond cleavage into radicals or ions.

Dissociation (psychology)

Dissociation (psychology): disruption of the normal integration of consciousness, memory, identity, and behavior; rooted in Pierre Janet's trauma work; spans detachment and compartmentalization forms, dissociative disorders, and ongoing trauma-model debates.

Dissociation constant

The dissociation constant is an equilibrium constant for how readily a complex or acid separates into components; a smaller value means stronger association or weaker dissociation.

Dissociative

Dissociatives are NMDA-antagonist drugs (ketamine, PCP, DXM, esketamine) causing detachment without full unconsciousness; used as anesthetics, in depression treatment, and recreationally as Schedule III substances.

Oct 20, 2026

Dissociative amnesia

Dissociative amnesia (psychogenic or functional amnesia) is a controversial psychiatric condition of inability to recall stressful autobiographical information without a neurological cause; DSM-5 includes fugue as a subtype, and case-study evidence and biomarkers remain weak.

Dissociative disorder

Dissociative disorders, including dissociative identity disorder (DID, formerly multiple personality disorder), dissociative amnesia, and depersonalization-derealization disorder, are trauma-linked conditions marked by disrupted memory, identity, and consciousness, treated mainly with psychotherapy.

Dissociative electron attachment

Dissociative electron attachment is a collision process in which a low-energy electron briefly attaches to a molecule, breaking it into a negatively charged fragment and a neutral one.

Sep 29, 2026

Dissociative Experiences Scale

The Dissociative Experiences Scale (DES) is a 28-item self-report questionnaire measuring dissociative symptoms such as amnesia, absorption, and depersonalization, introduced by Eve Bernstein and Frank Putnam in 1986.

Dissociative fugue

Dissociative fugue (psychogenic fugue): sudden purposeful travel with retrograde loss of autobiographical memory and identity, now a DSM-5-TR/ICD-11 specifier of dissociative amnesia, not a separate diagnosis.

Dissociative identity disorder

Dissociative identity disorder (DID), formerly multiple personality disorder, is a contested dissociative disorder with two or more identity states and dissociative amnesia, linked to childhood trauma under the trauma model and to suggestion under the sociocognitive model.

Oct 21, 2026

Dissociative neurological symptom disorder

Dissociative neurological symptom disorder (ICD-11 6B60) is the WHO classification of functional neurological symptoms such as non-epileptic seizures, paralysis, or sensory loss, with twelve subtypes; the DSM-5 counterpart is functional neurological symptom disorder (conversion disorder).

Dissociative recombination

Dissociative recombination is a reaction in which a molecular ion captures a free electron and breaks into neutral fragments, the dominant neutralization route for molecular ions in ionized gases.