Disappear

How to spell disappear

9 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce disappear

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does disappear mean?

1. verbTo pass out of sight or cease to exist.

Disappear in a sentence

• The keys seem to disappear every time we are in a hurry.

• The morning fog will disappear once the sun rises higher.

Where does disappear come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This verb is built from the prefix dis-, which carries a sense of reversal or removal, joined to 'appear'. The base 'appear' came into English in the 1200s from Old French aparoir, which descended from the Latin apparere, meaning 'to come into sight' or 'to become visible', formed from ad 'to' and parere 'to come forth or show oneself'. By adding dis- in the late 1400s, English created a word meaning literally 'to undo the appearing', that is, to pass out of sight. The spelling trap lives entirely in the seam: the prefix contributes a single s while 'appear' supplies the doubled p, so the correct form has one s and two p's, which is the exact reverse of what many writers expect. Remembering that you are simply gluing 'dis' onto the familiar word 'appear' keeps the letters in order.

How the word is built

• dis- (away, reversal)
• appear (from Latin apparere: to come into view)