displace

American  

[dis-pleys] / dɪsˈpleɪs /

verb (used with object)

displaced, displacing

1. to compel (a person or persons) to leave home, country, etc.

2. to move or put out of the usual or proper place.

   Synonyms:

   relocate

3. to take the place of; replace; supplant.

   Fiction displaces fact.

4. to remove from a position, office, or dignity.

   Synonyms:

   dismiss, oust, depose

5. Obsolete. to rid oneself of.

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displace British  

/ dɪsˈpleɪs /

verb

1. to move from the usual or correct location

2. to remove from office or employment

3. to occupy the place of; replace; supplant

4. to force (someone) to leave home or country, as during a war

5. chem to replace (an atom or group in a chemical compound) by another atom or group

6. physics to cause a displacement of (a quantity of liquid, usually water of a specified type and density)

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Related Words

Displace, misplace mean to put something in a different place from where it should be. To displace often means to shift something solid and comparatively immovable, more or less permanently from its place: The flood displaced houses from their foundations. To misplace is to put an object in a wrong place so that it is difficult to find: Papers belonging in the safe were misplaced and temporarily lost.

Other Word Forms

• displaceable adjective
• displacer noun
• predisplace verb (used with object)
• undisplaceable adjective

Etymology

Origin of displace

1545–55; dis- ¹ + place, perhaps modeled on Middle French desplacer

Explanation

When you displace something, you move it to a new position — either in a concrete sense, like moving a chair, or in an abstract sense, like firing someone from a job. Displace means to forcefully move or remove something — or someone — but it can also mean “to take the place of,” again, with some force. If your brother is sitting in your seat, you might say, “Get out of my chair! Don’t make me have to displace you!” Similarly, when a new employee is hired at work, she might displace the person who had the job before.

Example Sentences

Bessent also said it is clear that China is trying to displace the U.S. dollar as the world’s reserve currency.

From Barron's • Apr. 14, 2026

“We continue to believe it is highly unlikely that tools from the frontier labs will displace cybersecurity vendors, particularly those that primarily provide solutions that do real-time detection & response,” D.A.

From MarketWatch • Mar. 27, 2026

When combined with cheap, renewable sources of energy, this new take on old tech has the potential to displace much of the natural gas and other fossil fuels used for heating.

From The Wall Street Journal • Mar. 27, 2026

According to Infosys, generative AI might displace 92 million jobs such as front-end developers and testers, but it will create some 170 million new jobs for data annotators, AI engineers and AI leads.

From BBC • Mar. 16, 2026

When I became Joe’s ’prentice, Orlick was perhaps confirmed in some suspicion that I should displace him; howbeit, he liked me still less.

From "Great Expectations" by Charles Dickens

Related Words

• disturb
• evict
• expel
• force out
• lose
• uproot