Disheveled means looking messy or untidy, especially in appearance. When your hair is sticking up in three directions after you wake up, or your shirt is half-tucked and wrinkled after recess, you look disheveled.

The word usually describes how someone looks after they've been through something active or exhausting. A detective who's been working on a case all night might arrive at the office disheveled, with rumpled clothes and uncombed hair. After a long hike through the woods, you'd probably emerge looking pretty disheveled yourself, with leaves in your hair and dirt on your clothes.

Disheveled describes a noticeable degree of disorder, like someone hasn't had time to straighten themselves out. A student rushing to class after oversleeping might look disheveled. An inventor emerging from the workshop after hours of focused work might look disheveled.

The opposite would be neat, tidy, or well-groomed. While disheveled isn't necessarily bad (sometimes it just means you've been busy or having fun), it does mean you look like you could use a mirror and maybe a comb.