These words are used to describe people or things that are dissimilar, or which do not agree or go together. Disparate means unlike or unequal, as in kind, quality, character or amount. It usually refers to differences that are so extreme as to make the compared people or things totally distinct: such disparate art forms as sculpture and the oratorio; The two facets of his personality were disparate enough to recall Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.

Discordant suggests the unpleasant effect which is the result of an association of two or more musical sounds that are not in harmony or concord: a modern orchestral work that was so advanced in melodic structure as to seem not merely dissonant but discordant . In general application discordant can refer to anything that is not in agreement with any other thing, but most often it is reserved for situations which imply the presence of opposition or conflict: our chairman’s ideas about the projected expenditures were so discordant with those of the rest of the committee that our meeting ended in a stalemate. When people are described as discordant it is because they exist in a disagreeable, quarrelsome atmosphere: a discordant family whose children all left home to get away from their parents?constant bickering. Such people may be called incompatible ?that is, unable to exist or get along with each others in a pleasant or friendly way. In one way incompatible is a milder word than discordant ; it does not necessarily imply the open clash or opposition to work together in a small office without open disagreement and yet be called incompatible because one is so much more talkative than the other that he disturbs the quiet person’s working habits. In another way, however, incompatible is stronger than discordant since the incompatibility of two persons or things often implies the impossibility of their coexistence. Two discordant people might stay on in a place of employment, or as part of a family unit, continually fighting but nonetheless existing together. But incompatible strongly suggests the inability to remain together. Thus the word is often used to describe couples whose marriage has gone on the rocks or whose contemplated marriage is thought of as unworkable. When incompatible is used in reference to things rather than people there is the same suggestion of an incapability of mutual existence because of a basic difference in nature: the idea that matter and spirit are incompatible ; the use for incompatible colours in a painting.

Incongruous designates that which is not in agreement or is not suitable, reasonable or harmonious: his incongruous behaviour at his father’s funeral; the incongruous proportions of a building. It also suggests a lack of conformity, a being at odds with some accepted standard: a plan incongruous with reason. Incongruous sometimes has a connotation of the ludicrous or the absurd in the lack of agreement, harmony, conformity, etc., which it describes: the incongruous combination of a formal gown and sand-shoes.