dis·cord·ant / disˈkôrdnt/ • adj. 1. disagreeing or incongruous: the principle of meritocracy is discordant with claims of inherited worth. ∎  characterized by quarreling and conflict: a study of children in discordant homes.2. (of sounds) harsh and jarring because of a lack of harmony: bombs, guns, and engines mingled in discordant sound.PHRASES: strike a discordant note appear strange and out of place: the chair's modernity struck a discordant note in a room full of eighteenth-century furniture.DERIVATIVES: dis·cord·ance n.dis·cor·dan·cy / -dnsē/ n.dis·cord·ant·ly adv.

discordant
1. Applied to the cross-cutting relationship of an igneous intrusion, e.g. a dyke, when it intersects the bedding planes or foliation in the host rock. See LAW OF CROSS-CUTTING RELATIONSHIPS.

2. Applied to a lack of parallelism between the bedding planes (or tectonic fabric) of one rock unit and others adjacent to it. Compare CONCORDANT.