ablation
Americannoun
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ablations
plural
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the removal, especially of organs, abnormal growths, or harmful substances, from the body by mechanical means, as by surgery.
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the reduction in volume of glacial ice, snow, or névé by the combined processes of melting, evaporation, and calving.
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Aerospace. erosion of the protective outer surface ablator of a spacecraft or missile due to the aerodynamic heating caused by travel at hypersonic speed during reentry through the atmosphere.
noun
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the surgical removal of an organ, structure, or part
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the melting or wearing away of an expendable part, such as the heat shield of a space re-entry vehicle on passing through the earth's atmosphere
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the wearing away of a rock or glacier
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The wearing away or destruction of the outer or forward surface of an object, such as a meteorite or a spacecraft, as it moves very rapidly through the atmosphere. The friction of the air striking the object heats and often melts or burns its outer layers. Spacecraft and missiles are often equipped with heat shields designed to wear away by ablation in order to prevent heat from building up in structurally important parts.
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The process by which snow and ice are removed from a glacier or other mass of ice. Ablation typically occurs through melting, sublimation, wind erosion, or calving.
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◆ The ablation zone is the area of a glacier that has the lowest elevation, where annual water loss is greater than the annual accumulation of snow.
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of ablation
First recorded in 1570–80, ablation is from the Late Latin word ablātiōn- (stem of ablātiō ). See ablate, -ion
Explanation
An ablation is removing a body part, organ, or tissue surgically. If a doctor takes out one of your kidneys, that's an ablation. This Latinate noun from the little-used verb ablate refers to the surgical removal of tissue from someone's body. This is a general term that applies to the surgical removal of any part of the patient's body. If an oncologist is removing a cancerous growth, that's an ablation. If a limb is being amputated, that's an ablation. If a dentist pulls out a tooth, that's an ablation. The other kind of ablation is also a reduction: the melting of glaciers.
Vocabulary lists containing ablation
Physical Geography - High School
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The Gene
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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:
In addition, it may improve MRI guided cancer treatments by directing RF energy more precisely for procedures such as tumor hyperthermia or thermal tissue ablation.
From Science Daily ● Jul. 10, 2026
The company didn’t detail the investments but said they further reinforce the momentum of its cardiac ablation business.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 3, 2026
Laser therapy, or laser ablation, is a procedure done under local anaesthetic where a laser burns away the abnormal cells.
From BBC ● Jan. 18, 2026
Sales of the company’s cardiac ablation products, a set of treatments for the heart condition atrial fibrillation, were up 71% compared with the same quarter last year.
From Barron's ● Nov. 18, 2025
Like its Soviet predecessors, the Viking landing maneuver involved an ablation shield, a parachute and retro-rockets.
From "Cosmos" by Carl Sagan
Thirteen years passed between his first and second ablations, and the second was 12 years ago.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 13, 2024
He discovered he had an irregular heartbeat as a high school freshman and had two cardiac ablations before finishing his football and basketball careers at Lincoln High in Gahanna, Ohio, a suburb of Columbus.
From Seattle Times ● Nov. 5, 2021
He had struggled for a decade with ventricular tachycardia and had received four catheter ablations — but still had rapid heartbeats.
From New York Times ● Dec. 13, 2017
He needed a pacemaker, and he’s undergone three ablations for atrial fibrillation.
From Washington Times ● May 7, 2016
As we came down to the lake in the morning to perform our ablations, we saw a fine deer on the opposite shore, feeding upon the pond lilies that grew along in the shallow water.
From Wild Northern Scenes Sporting Adventures with the Rifle and the Rod by S. H. (Samuel H.) Hammond
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.
