disappeared

American  

[dis-uh-peerd] / ˌdɪs əˈpɪərd /

adjective

1. having vanished from sight or existence.

   Right this minute, the only thing I want to do is to find a way to recover my disappeared phone photos.

   The museum displays tools and artifacts from an almost disappeared culture, known only from one archaeological site.

2. (of a person) having vanished under suspicious or unknown circumstances.

   Family members of the disappeared persons were denied the right to any effective remedy, including the right to know the fate of their loved ones.

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noun

(used with a plural verb)

1. none the disappeared people, especially political opponents, who have vanished under suspicious or unknown circumstances, or without due process of law.

   The determination of the parents, grandparents, and—most recently—children of the disappeared is finally putting dictators, torturers, and their accomplices behind bars.

verb

1. the simple past tense and past participle of disappear.

Etymology

Origin of disappeared

First recorded in 1400–50 as a verb: disappear ( def. ) + -ed ¹ ( def. ), and in 1640–50 as an adjective: disappear ( def. ) + -ed ² ( def. )

Example Sentences

With cloud revenues surging amid acute shortages of semiconductors, memory, and compute, the skepticism of late 2025 has suddenly disappeared.

From Barron's • Jun. 5, 2026

Research by Banda University of Agriculture and Technology found that nearly one-sixth of the district's dense forest cover disappeared between 1991 and 2022, largely due to mining and agricultural expansion.

From BBC • Jun. 1, 2026

The legacy of the Vanderbilts hangs heavy over advisers for the wealthy, who often note that their Gilded Age fortune all but disappeared over successive generations.

From The Wall Street Journal • Jun. 1, 2026

And the coalition that swept him back into office — including a surge in support from Latino, independent and young voters — has effectively disappeared.

From Los Angeles Times • May 31, 2026

With that she turned, clambered back out the window, and disappeared.

From "Glitch" by Laura Martin

Related Words

• absent
• adrift
• disoriented
• hidden
• invisible
• misplaced
• vanished