erasure

American  

[ih-rey-sher] / ɪˈreɪ ʃər /

noun

1. an act or instance of erasing.

2. a place where something has been erased; a spot or mark left after erasing.

   You can't sign a contract with so many erasures in it.

3. 1. the exclusion of a minority group or group member from the historical record, or from the discussion of current events: black victim erasure in the crime-bill debate.

      erasure of female scientists from textbooks;

      black victim erasure in the crime-bill debate.

   2. the replacement or whitewashing of a minority character or group with a member or members of the dominant cultural group in fictional representations of historical events.

      minority erasure in film.

   3. the denial of an individual’s or group’s minority identity, or the misidentification of a minority group member: cultural erasure and white identity among Chicanos.

      trans-erasure issues in the LGBT community;

      cultural erasure and white identity among Chicanos.

---

erasure British  

/ ɪˈreɪʒə /

noun

1. the act or an instance of erasing

2. the place or mark, as on a piece of paper, where something has been erased

---

Other Word Forms

• nonerasure noun

Etymology

Origin of erasure

First recorded in 1725–35; erase + -ure

Explanation

Erasure is the act of erasing, deleting, or removing something. It's tricky to write an essay on a typewriter instead of a computer, because it's hard to hide any erasures. An erasure can be made, appropriately, by erasing pencilled words with an eraser, but there are many other kinds of erasure. You can experience an accidental erasure of a whole day's work by hitting the wrong button on your laptop, and you can choose to hide details of your past with the kind of erasure that involves leaving certain information out when you tell your story. The Latin root is eradere, "scrape off" or "remove."

Example Sentences

Yet Mr. Trump’s over-the-top rhetoric about Iran’s civilizational erasure came the same day he engaged in relaxed and jokey conversation with the Artemis astronauts.

From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 8, 2026

Harmonia Rosales’ Black figurative paintings combine Eurocentric artistic traditions with African diasporic cosmologies as a way to course-correct the historical erasure of Black images from classical narratives.

From Los Angeles Times • Feb. 23, 2026

"New York is the birthplace of the modern LGBTQ+ rights movement, and no act of erasure will ever change, or silence, that history," he wrote on X.

From Barron's • Feb. 10, 2026

"Forgiveness without cost is not reconciliation, it's erasure," Chamblee said.

From BBC • Jan. 12, 2026

So thorough was the erasure that within a few generations neither conqueror nor conquered knew that this world had existed.

From "1491" by Charles C. Mann

Related Words

• deletion