Disruption means a disturbance that interrupts something and breaks its normal flow. When a fire drill causes disruption in math class, everyone has to stop working and file outside. When construction noise creates disruption during a library's story hour, the librarian struggles to read aloud over the hammering and drilling.

The word suggests more than a brief pause: a true disruption throws things off course and requires adjustment. A cough during a movie is a distraction, but a power outage is a disruption because it stops the whole show. Parents might worry that moving to a new city will cause disruption in their children's education. A snowstorm creates disruption when it forces schools to close and prevents people from getting to work.

In business and technology, people use disruption differently: they talk about disrupting entire industries by inventing something so new and useful that it changes how everyone does things. The printing press disrupted how books were made. The internet disrupted how people communicate and find information. These disruptions replaced old methods with better ones, though the changes were often difficult for people accustomed to the old ways.

The verb form is disrupt. Someone who disrupts class is being disruptive. Notice that disruptions can be accidental or intentional, minor or major, but they always interrupt the regular pattern of things.