To disperse means to scatter or spread out in different directions. When a crowd disperses after a concert ends, people stop clustering together and head off to their cars, homes, or the subway. When you blow on a dandelion, the seeds disperse on the wind, floating away to land in many different spots.

The word captures that movement from gathered together to spread apart. A teacher might disperse students into small groups around the classroom. Police might ask protesters to disperse and go home. Smoke from a campfire disperses into the air, thinning out until you can barely see it.

Scientists use this word too: light disperses when it passes through a prism, splitting into different colors that spread across a wall. Seeds disperse from plants through various clever methods: some catch the wind, some hitch rides on animal fur, and some float down streams.

The opposite of disperse is to gather, collect, or converge. Think of students dispersing after the final bell rings, then gathering again the next morning: the same people, but moving in opposite patterns. When something disperses, it doesn't disappear. It just spreads out so widely that you can't see it all in one place anymore.