discordant

adj

1. Not in accord or harmony; conflicting, incompatible.

   “For it is poſſible long ſtudy may encreaſe, and confirm erroneous Sentences: and vvhere men build on falſe grounds, the more they build, the greater is the ruine: and of thoſe that ſtudy, and obſerve vvith equall time, and diligence, the reaſons and reſolutions are, and muſt remain diſcordant: […]”

   “[T]hat vvhich vve call Conſcience is to be referred, namely, if by a due compariſon of things done vvith the rule, there be a conſonancy follovvs the ſentence Approbation; if diſcordant from it, the ſentence of Condemnation.”

   “Thy ſenate is a ſcene of civil jar, / Chaos of contrarieties at vvar, / VVhere ſharp and ſolid, phlegmatic and light, / Diſcordant atoms meet, ferment and fight, […]”

   “If, after all, he should experience an evil or unpleasant impression, let him throw aside first these volumes, as the lightest; then Cicero, Demosthenes, and every one else whose political notions, so discordant from those now prevalent, are represented in them; […]”

   “It is very probable, that Hephaistos and other deities may have been known under forms of tradition variously modified, in Troas and in Greece respectively; and, indeed, in different portions of one and the same country. These forms, however distinct or discordant, the plan of Homer required him in some manner to amalgamate.”

2. Not in accord or harmony; conflicting, incompatible.

   “Rumour is a pipe, / Blovvne by ſurmizes, Iealouſies[,] coniectures, / And of ſo eaſie, and ſo plaine a ſtop, / That the blunt monſter, vvith vncounted heads, / The ſtill diſcordant vvau'ring multitude, / Can play vpon it.”

   “Yet this Baſilius [Basil I, who had Michael III assassinated] vvaſhed his hands and made many Proteſtations that he had no hand in his blood. This made for the Popes advantage: VVomen and Rebels and Traytors and diſcordant Princes did much in raiſing him.”

3. (also, figuratively)Not in accord or harmony; conflicting, incompatible.

   “[N]o other kind of liuing beaſtes both behold the fayrenes and the bewtie of the wordle^([sic – meaning worlde]), or is moued with anny reſpect of ſauours, but only for the diuerſity of meates, nother perceaueth the concordaunt and diſcordante diſtaunces of ſoundes, and tunes […]”

   “But hovv fatally ſecure ſhould vve be, if God ſhould permit this Syren alvvaies to entertain us vvith her muſic, and ſhould not by ſome diſcordant grating notes, interrupt our raptures, and recal us to ſober thoughts?”

   “VVar, vvith diſcordant Notes and jarring Noiſe, / The Harmony of Peace deſtroys.”

   “In the heart / No paſſion touches a diſcordant ſtring, / But all is harmony and love.”

   “[T]rue, Mac's apology and subsequent behaviour rather raised him in the opinion of his fellow-castaways. But the discordant note had been struck, and its harmonics tingled in the brain.”

4. (physical)Of a rock formation or other land feature, or its alignment: cutting across or transverse to neighbouring features.

   “Dikes may be discordant to country rock if they intrude at a high angle to the bedding.”

5. (physical)Of a rock formation or other land feature, or its alignment: cutting across or transverse to neighbouring features.
6. Of two similar subjects, especially twins: differing in some characteristic.
7. (abbreviation, alt-of, ellipsis)Ellipsis of serodiscordant (“of a couple: with one partner HIV positive and the other HIV negative”).
8. Of figures, etc.: having opposite signs (for example, positive and negative).

noun

1. (in-plural)A thing which is not in accord or harmony with one or more other things.

   “In the process of dismemberment it must often happen that the true individuality of a soil is lost, so that schemes of laboratory classification sometimes arbitrarily separate agricultural similars and unite agricultural discordants.”