Skip to main content
Glite Dictionary
🕵️ Secretly gone 👻 No longer present
disappearance

disappearance

183 4.0
Someone going away secretly so no one knows where they are
  • noun
  • /ˌdɪsəˈpɪərəns/
: desaparición
  • Police are still searching for clues about the disappearance of several hikers in the mountains.
  • torture and disappearances
  • killings and disappearances
  • executions and disappearances

Ghosting is the sudden and abrupt disappearance of a person from your life with little or no warning.

Autoplay Next

Examples

  • So at this point, you believe that she is involved in the disappearance of your wife and daughter.

  • I've been hired to look into your brother's disappearance.

    Marlowe (2023)

  • The date of the girls disappearance was changed to the next day.

    The Disappearance of Jenna Matheson (2007)

  • I was a suspect in the disappearance.

    The Misadventures of Mistress Maneater (2020)

  • We are aware of your daughter's disappearance.

    The Pale Blue Eye (2022)

  • TV Announcer: Last night, we began the show with the disappearance of Michael.

    Fiction book (2001)

  • You think this has something to do with Ivan's disappearance?

    Vamps (2012)

  • Our last case of the day is the disappearance of Larry Bader.

  • Now the cops are saying that the circumstances surrounding the girl's disappearance are similar to several murder-kidnappings in Austin three years ago.

    Disturbia (2007)

  • Fortunate communities are largely untouched by the disappearances; others bear the brunt more heavily.

    Academic text (2017)

Synonyms

disappearing
vsdisappearance
10 4.7

Leaving a place secretly or without explaining why

is the noun form naming that secret leaving rather than the verb form
vanishing
vsdisappearance
9 6.0

A sudden disappearance of a person or thing without explanation

is secret leaving that hides someone's whereabouts rather than sudden absence
running away
vsdisappearance
2 3.8

Leaving home or another place without permission when you should stay

is secret and unexplained rather than openly leaving for rule-breaking
vanishment
vsdisappearance
1 9.0

A complete disappearance of someone or something so it cannot be seen

is secret leaving that results in unknown whereabouts rather than mere loss of sight
decampment
vsdisappearance
9.9

Secretly leaving a place to avoid being caught

is secret leaving without the specific sense of fleeing capture

Antonyms

appearance
470 2.6

A person or thing becoming visible in public, for example on stage

How Secret

to abscond
  • Formal
11 8.5
disappearance
183 4.0
vanishing
9 6.0
to exit stage left
  • Informal
2 7.9
departure
188 2.3

Surface Forms

disappearance singular
disappearances plural

Morphology

disappearance = disappear (semi-transparent) = dis + appear + ance

This is a standard noun formation meaning the act or state of disappearing.

Etymology

Disappearance is made of dis- 'away' and appear 'to come into view'. A helpful way to remember the second sense is to think of someone who 'moves away' and stops showing up, so their place is unknown.