A piece of bad luck or a less favorable position is a disadvantage. If you try to run a fifty-yard shot in flip-flops while everyone else is wearing running shoes, you`re at a disadvantage. It`s harder to succeed when you start with a disadvantage. One type of disadvantage is being born into a poor family – it`s a struggle for a child in poverty to succeed in school, go to university, or get a well-paying job. A disadvantage is the opposite of an advantage, a happy or favorable circumstance. The root of both words is Old French before, “at the front”. Middle English disavauntage, from Anglo-French disadvantage, from des- dis- + advantage advantage.