vanish
Americanverb (used without object)
-
vanishes,
present (3rd person singular)
-
vanished,
past participle, past
-
vanishing
present participle
-
to disappear from sight, especially quickly; become invisible.
The frost vanished when the sun came out.
- Synonyms:
- evanesce
- Antonyms:
- appear
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to go away, especially furtively or mysteriously; disappear by quick departure.
The thief vanished in the night.
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to disappear by ceasing to exist; come to an end.
The pain vanished after he took an aspirin.
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Mathematics. (of a number, quantity, or function) to become zero.
verb (used with object)
-
vanishes,
present (3rd person singular)
-
vanished,
past participle, past
-
vanishing
present participle
noun
verb
-
to disappear, esp suddenly or mysteriously
-
to cease to exist; fade away
-
maths to become zero
noun
Synonym Usage
See disappear.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
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vanishernoun
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vanishmentnoun
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outvanishverb (used with object)
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nonvanishingadjective
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unvanishingadjective
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vanishinglyadverb
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
vanishsimple
-
vanishessimple
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have vanishedperfect
-
has vanishedperfect
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am vanishingprogressive
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are vanishingprogressive
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is vanishingprogressive
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have been vanishingperfect progressive
-
has been vanishingperfect progressive
Past
-
vanishedsimple
-
had vanishedperfect
-
was vanishingprogressive
-
were vanishingprogressive
-
had been vanishingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of vanish
1275–1325; Middle English vanisshen, vanissen < Middle French evaniss-, long stem of e ( s ) vanir ≪ Latin ex- ex- 1 + vānēscere to pass away, equivalent to vān ( us ) vain + -ēscere inchoative suffix
Explanation
A car driving into the distance, a member of a near-extinct species, or that last piece of pecan pie in the refrigerator — any of these things is likely to vanish soon, meaning "to disappear." The word vanish entered English by way of French, but it can be traced back to the Latin word evanescere, meaning to “die away” or “to dissipate.” The word covers all kinds of disappearing acts, from the disappearance of an object or a person. You might, for example, vanish from school when the last bell rings on Friday. Things we can't see can also vanish, like the stress that vanishes when your big project is complete.
Vocabulary lists containing vanish
"The Ravine," Vocabulary from the short story
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"The Gift of the Magi" by O. Henry
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Nobody's Home: Synonyms For "Absent"
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
But the disease did not vanish once that initial disaster passed.
From Science Daily ● Sep. 20, 2026
But it didn't expect the cans to vanish permanently.
From BBC ● Sep. 6, 2026
He takes time to let us hear what a glacier sounds like while showing the swirls of blue ice, but also what it looks like when glaciers collapse and vanish.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 13, 2026
Something as embedded and sentimental as street food doesn’t just vanish.
From Salon ● Aug. 9, 2026
My face felt like it was on fire, but before I could sink back into my seat and vanish, Oliver put his arm around me.
From "Bye Forever, I Guess" by Jodi Meadows
Roll the account into an IRA and the exception vanishes permanently.
From MarketWatch ● Sep. 3, 2026
“Their vessel leaves a smooth, filigree-edged road on the ocean that vanishes and erases itself,” Enda notices on her voyage, “so that they can never find their way back, even if they want to.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 29, 2026
Once these materials drop below a critical temperature, their electrical resistance suddenly vanishes.
From Science Daily ● Apr. 27, 2026
Right now, when you play Gkolomeev’s “world-record” video on YouTube, a medical-risk warning appears for barely five seconds — then vanishes.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 23, 2026
Before I can say anything else to him, he vanishes, leaving me alone again in the room, staring numbly at the spot where his virtual form had just been.
From "Warcross" by Marie Lu
This interpretation could explain why the 364-day calendar occupies such a prominent place in the Qumran writings even though it appears to have vanished from practical historical use.
From Science Daily ● Sep. 20, 2026
Prices doubled every day, goods vanished from shelves, and, at its worst, the monthly inflation rate reached 79 billion percent.
From Slate ● Sep. 20, 2026
In the days before Tice vanished, the driver made one particularly brazen move while Tice was interviewing rebel fighters.
From BBC ● Sep. 17, 2026
Jordan may wish to exact revenge, and Eddy may want to find one of the victims who has vanished, but both have to go about their work furtively.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 1, 2026
Without crunching a weed, without rustling a leaf, the robot vanished into the thick foliage.
From "The Wild Robot Escapes" by Peter Brown
"We hope that by putting this extraordinary bird into millions of pockets and purses, we can spark a nationwide conversation about a species at real risk of vanishing from Britain forever."
From BBC ● Aug. 24, 2026
NASA's Perseverance Mars rover has captured a remarkable celestial sight: Earth briefly vanishing behind Phobos in the evening sky of Mars.
From Science Daily ● Aug. 13, 2026
“Glaciers are leaving geologic time and are vanishing in the span of a human lifetime, which is unprecedented,” he says.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 13, 2026
A third of patients whose cancer worsened on other immunotherapies experienced remission on RP1, with cancers vanishing in one of six.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 31, 2026
Once arrested, one’s chances of ever being truly free of the system of control are slim, often to the vanishing point.
From "The New Jim Crow" by Michelle Alexander
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
