defenestration
Americannoun
-
the act of throwing a person or thing out of a window.
The defenestration of the Catholic commissioners in Prague precipitated the Thirty Years’ War.
-
the act of suddenly removing someone from an important position or office.
When the new corporate board was voted in, there was a massive defenestration of high-level executives.
noun
Etymology
Origin of defenestration
First recorded in 1610–20; de- + Latin fenestr(a) “window” + -ation
Explanation
Defenestration is a word for the act of throwing something or someone out of a window. Yes, there's actually a word for that. Fenestra is the Latin word for window. So that's how we came up with defenestration, the frighteningly specific word for throwing someone out a window. Perhaps you've heard of the famous Defenestration of Prague, which helped launch the 30 Years' War? If not, don't worry. This isn't a word you'll need to use very often, unless there are a lot of people and things being tossed out of the windows in your life.
Vocabulary lists containing defenestration
There's A Word for That
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The Poisonwood Bible
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#BigWordLove: Celebrating Big, Beautiful Words with the Huffington Post
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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.
However, several analysts have noted there isn’t a clear front-runner to succeed Starmer at this stage, and any defenestration could still take months to materialize.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 5, 2026
And there has been all sorts of faux urgency about the need to elect a speaker so the House — leaderless since McCarthy’s defenestration — can get back to business.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 17, 2023
You may have thought, given the voluminous coverage of this case, that Tessier-Lavigne’s defenestration demonstrates such failures are highly unusual and typically lead to significant sanctions.
From Scientific American ● Aug. 1, 2023
Sadly, that's a likely explanation for his current defenestration.
From Salon ● May 4, 2023
Rachel is clearly the one with locks on every possible route to defenestration.
From "The Poisonwood Bible" by Barbara Kingsolver
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.
