effacement

American  

[ih-feys-muhnt] / ɪˈfeɪs mənt /

noun

1. the act of wiping out, erasing, or doing away with something.

   The gradual effacement of ethnic differences has often been seen as a solution to the difficulties experienced by immigrants.

2. the act or habit of humbly keeping oneself in the background; self-effacement.

   There's nothing showy about the way this author writes; a sort of vast humility and effacement echoes through the whole book.

3. Medicine/Medical. the thinning of bodily tissue, especially of the cervix to prepare for childbirth.

   Cervical effacement is usually nearly complete before the first phase of labor.

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Etymology

Origin of effacement

efface ( def. ) + -ment ( def. )

Explanation

Effacement is what happens when something is erased or blotted out. If you hit your head hard enough, it might cause the effacement of your memory. You can use this noun for things that are physically erased, like the rain's effacement of the chalk portrait you drew on the sidewalk. It can also be used for figurative erasing, like the effacement of a dancer's dreams when he doesn't win a spot in the ballet corps. Effacement comes from the verb efface, "to erase or obliterate," from the Old French esfacier, literally "to remove the face."

Example Sentences

That effacement tries to create a counterfactual absurdity.

From Salon • Mar. 9, 2025

The King Charles spaniel in the foreground of this scene escaped effacement.

From New York Times • May 11, 2023

This effacement of Aldrin came about because Apollo astronauts wore visors lined with gold to protect their eyes from sunlight.

From The Guardian • Jul. 17, 2019

And this — the dissolution of the geopolitical entity in which it occurred — has contributed to its effacement: buried under the accretions of history like the radioactive debris smothered by “absorbents” during its cleanup.

From Los Angeles Times • Apr. 12, 2019

On this point again there is cause to regret, if not their disappearance, at least their effacement.

From Readings in Money and Banking Selected and Adapted by Phillips, Chester Arthur