disappear
Americanverb (used without object)
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disappears,
present (3rd person singular)
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disappeared,
past participle, past
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disappearing
present participle
-
to cease to be seen; vanish from sight.
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to cease to exist or be known; pass away; end gradually.
One by one the symptoms disappeared.
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(of a person) to vanish under suspicious circumstances.
The dictator's outspoken opponent disappeared that evening, shortly after midnight.
verb (used with object)
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disappears,
present (3rd person singular)
-
disappeared,
past participle, past
-
disappearing
present participle
-
to cause to disappear.
The magician then disappeared the card.
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to kidnap or arrest and then imprison or kill (a political opponent) without due process of law.
verb
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(intr) to cease to be visible; vanish
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(intr) to go away or become lost, esp secretly or without explanation
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(intr) to cease to exist, have effect, or be known; become extinct or lost
the pain has disappeared
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(tr) (esp in South and Central America) to arrest secretly and presumably imprison or kill (a member of an opposing political group)
Synonym Usage
Disappear, fade, vanish suggest that something passes from sight. Disappear is used of whatever suddenly or gradually goes out of sight: We watched him turn down a side street and then disappear. Fade suggests a (complete or partial) disappearance that proceeds gradually and often by means of a blending into something else: Colors in the sky at sunrise quickly fade. Vanish suggests complete, generally rapid, and often mysterious disappearance: A mirage can vanish as suddenly as it appears.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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disappearsimple
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disappearssimple
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have disappearedperfect
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has disappearedperfect
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am disappearingprogressive
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are disappearingprogressive
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is disappearingprogressive
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have been disappearingperfect progressive
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has been disappearingperfect progressive
Past
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disappearedsimple
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had disappearedperfect
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was disappearingprogressive
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were disappearingprogressive
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had been disappearingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of disappear
Explanation
When something disappears, it's gone. To disappear is to vanish, evaporate, or just fade away. The word disappear is made up of dis, meaning "do the opposite of" and appear. So to disappear is to do the opposite of appear. Magicians are experts at making things disappear: one minute the rabbit is here, and the next, it's gone! When you lose something, like one of a pair of socks, you could say it disappeared. Snow disappears as it melts; boiling water disappears as it evaporates. Anything that goes away without leaving a trace has disappeared.
Vocabulary lists containing disappear
"Hitching a Ride"
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Commonly Misspelled Words, List 3
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Let It Be
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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:
The sect's original calendar did not necessarily disappear from its religious thinking.
From Science Daily ● Sep. 20, 2026
The No. 8 Rebels had seen a 17-point halftime lead disappear.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 20, 2026
"That reality, the gap between the girls and boys journeys is indefensible, and I want that to disappear."
From BBC ● Sep. 18, 2026
It’s important that truth tellers such as Blasey Ford don’t disappear either.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 18, 2026
But he’d been in the process of going, which meant he might disappear.
From "Bye Forever, I Guess" by Jodi Meadows
So when sulphur emissions fall, their cooling effect disappears almost immediately.
From BBC ● Sep. 8, 2026
An unobstructed view toward the horizon will make it easier to see before Venus disappears below it.
From Science Daily ● Sep. 3, 2026
Ebon Moss-Bachrach, Caitríona Balfe, Kit Connor and Fred Hechinger star as members of a struggling family that begins to unravel after the mother disappears.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 3, 2026
For investors, there is a clear message: If scarcity disappears, valuations will have to adjust.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 28, 2026
A tiny pinpoint across the edge of the desert disappears along with the mountains.
From "The Last Cuentista" by Donna Barba Higuera
Tanks have all but disappeared from the front line.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 22, 2026
The families of those disappeared during the conflict have responded to the discovery by holding protest meetings and remembrance ceremonies.
From BBC ● Sep. 20, 2026
Some bacterial groups associated with fresh pellets disappeared as the samples aged.
From Science Daily ● Sep. 19, 2026
If those disturbances gradually disappeared, the system returned to stability.
From Science Daily ● Sep. 19, 2026
“You were a kid. My mom said lots of her friends disappeared, and they were adults. And your parents were getting divorced. I probably shouldn’t have been so mad.”
From "Keeping Pace" by Laurie Morrison
Drywood termites are remarkably good at disappearing into the very material they destroy.
From Science Daily ● Sep. 19, 2026
For Patrick Munnelly, market strategist at Tickmill Group, the pullback in oil prices does not equate to risks disappearing in the waterway, but signals investors weighing a slower, more prolonged conflict.
From MarketWatch ● Sep. 11, 2026
According to MSF, the closure of frontline services was putting other hospitals under severe strain - as they were losing their capacity to function and medicines were disappearing.
From BBC ● Sep. 8, 2026
Festivals and fairs crowd the calendar through summer and fall, thinning out but never disappearing entirely once the weather turns cold.
From Salon ● Sep. 8, 2026
I don’t blame Helena for disappearing every day.
From "The Light in Hidden Places" by Sharon Cameron
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.
