Meanings
present singular third person disintermediates · participle present disintermediating · participle past disintermediated · past disintermediated
- ambitransitivebankingTo carry out disintermediation, to remove another from intermediation.
The rise of the Internet has allowed individuals in the dating market to disintermediate their friends, i.e. to meet romantic partners without the personal intermediation of their friends and family.
2019 August 20, Michael Rosenfeld, Reuben J. Thomas, Sonia Hausen, “Disintermediating your friends: How Online Dating in the United States displaces other ways of meeting”, in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, volume 116, number 36, →DOI1 more example
High-profile ventures like Amazon.com, Dell, and E*Trade helped to hype the Internet as the means to disintermediate, or cut out the middlemen. The theory was that these indirect channels weren't necessary anymore.
2001, Business Week, page 76
Origin
Back-formation from disintermediation.
Full word history & related roots →Translations
French court-circuiter
- court-circuiterto carry out disintermediation
Polish wykluczać pośrednictwo, wykluczyć pośrednictwo
- wykluczać pośrednictwoto carry out disintermediation
- wykluczyć pośrednictwoto carry out disintermediation
Cite this entry
disintermediate. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/disintermediate
“disintermediate.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/disintermediate. Accessed November 3, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “disintermediate,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/disintermediate.
Source: disintermediate on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.