Disappearance

How to spell disappearance

13 letters · 4 syllables

How to pronounce disappearance

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does disappearance mean?

1. nounThe act or fact of ceasing to be visible or present, or of going missing.

Disappearance in a sentence

• Detectives investigated the sudden disappearance of the businessman.

• The magician's signature trick was the disappearance of a live dove.

Where does disappearance come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word builds on 'appear', which English took through Old French from the Latin verb apparere, meaning 'to come into view' or 'to show oneself'. That Latin verb joined ad ('to') with parere ('to come forth, to be visible'). The prefix dis- was added in English to express reversal, giving 'disappear', literally 'to stop being visible', a verb recorded from the late 1500s. The abstract noun 'disappearance', naming the act or state of vanishing, followed in the 1700s with the Latin-derived suffix -ance, which forms nouns of action or condition. The spelling trap lives in the middle: a single s after dis-, then the doubled p inherited from ad- assimilating before parere, so writers must remember 'dis' plus 'appear' rather than guessing at the consonants.

How the word is built

• dis- (reversal, away)
• ap- (variant of ad-: to)
• pear (from Latin parere: to come into view)
• -ance (noun suffix)