deletion

noun

de·​le·​tion di-ˈlē-shən 

dē-

1

: the act of deleting

2

a

: something deleted

b(1)

: the absence of a section of genetic material from a gene or chromosome

(2)

: the mutational process that results in a deletion

Synonyms

• elision
• omission

Examples of deletion in a Sentence

one of the deletions from the final cut of the movie turned out to be my one line of dialogue

Recent Examples on the Web

Among the public controversies has been the Pentagon’s wholesale deletions of pages related to the Navajo Code Talkers’ contributions in World War II and baseball legend Jackie Robinson’s military career. —Ashraf Khalil, Los Angeles Times, 8 Apr. 2025

The effort, carried out through executive orders, has resulted in the deletion or archiving of tens of thousands of pages that previously highlighted the service of women, LGBTQ+ people and people of color. —Kevin Sabet, Newsweek, 24 Mar. 2025

Managing consent, handling deletion requests and keeping proper records all get more complicated when data never stops moving. —Murugan Lakshmanan, Forbes, 24 Mar. 2025

The company will then send an an email asking users to confirm the deletion request. —Megan Cerullo, CBS News, 24 Mar. 2025

Word History

Etymology

Latin deletion-, deletio destruction, from delēre

First Known Use

1590, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Rhymes for deletion

• accretion
• completion
• concretion
• depletion
• excretion
• repletion
• secretion
• carburetion
• grecian
• hypersecretion

Medical Definition

deletion

noun

de·​le·​tion di-ˈlē-shən 

1

: the absence of a section of genetic material from a gene or chromosome

2

: the mutational process that results in a deletion