disappear
disappear Lexical Profile
disappear Game Scores & Validity
• verb
To cease to be visible; to pass out of sight either gradually or suddenly.
"The sun slowly disappeared below the horizon as evening approached."
To cease to exist or be in use; to become extinct or lost.
"Many indigenous languages are in danger of disappearing within the next century."
To go missing or become impossible to find, whether of a person or an object.
"My keys seem to have disappeared from the kitchen counter again."
To abduct, secretly detain, or kill a person, especially for political reasons, leaving their fate unknown.
"Human rights organizations documented hundreds of dissidents who were disappeared during the dictatorship."
Word Nuance & Usage
While traditionally strictly intransitive ('she disappeared'), 'disappear' is also used transitively in human rights and political contexts ('the regime disappeared its critics') to mean abducting or secretly eliminating someone.
• Rhymes for disappear
• Nearby Words
Word Origin & Etymology
First recorded in the late 15th century, formed in English from the negative prefix 'dis-' and the verb 'appear' (from Old French 'aparoir', ultimately from Latin 'apparere', meaning 'to come into sight').