Word of the Day

: October 20, 2024

defenestration

noun dee-fen-uh-STRAY-shun

What It Means

Defenestration is most often used to refer to a usually swift dismissal or expulsion, as from a political party or office. It is also used to refer to a throwing of a person or thing out of a window.

// Once fancying itself something of a big tent, the group now seeks the defenestration of any local leader who isn't aligned with the current mayor's administration.

// Ingrid's annoyance at the alarm clock’s persistent drone led to the clock's sudden defenestration from her eighth-floor bedroom.

See the entry >

defenestration in Context

"Since his defenestration, Michael had dabbled in investing, but he was open to returning to the cutthroat world of Silicon Valley start-ups." — Kate Conger and Ryan Mac, Character Limit: How Elon Musk Destroyed Twitter, 2024

Did You Know?

These days, defenestration—from the Latin fenestra, meaning "window"—is often used to describe the forceful removal of someone from public office or from some other advantageous position. History's most famous defenestration, however, was one in which the tossing out the window was quite literal. On May 23, 1618, two imperial regents were found guilty of violating certain guarantees of religious freedom and were thrown out the window of Prague Castle. The men survived the 50-foot tumble into the moat, but the incident marked the beginning of the Bohemian resistance to Hapsburg rule that eventually led to the Thirty Years' War and came to be known as the Defenestration of Prague. It was, in fact, the third such historical defenestration in Prague, but it was the first to be referred to as such by English speakers.