defacement
noun
Simple meaning
Damaging the appearance or surface of something.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
dihfaysmuhntSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
dɪˈfeɪsmənt
This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.
IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.
Definition
Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.
noun
The act of damaging the appearance or surface of something
“The defacement of an Italian mosaic during the Turkish invasion.”
An act of defacing; an instance of visibly marring or disfiguring something.
An act of voiding or devaluing; nullification of the face value.
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- C2 · Proficient (estimated)
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: The act of damaging the appearance or surface of something
Used this way, defacement is a common word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It usually sounds natural in a wide range of settings.
“The defacement of an Italian mosaic during the Turkish invasion.”
- Emotional tone
- Neutral
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Not strongly marked
- How common
- Common
- Connotation
- Matter-of-fact
- Usage feel
- Neutral and straightforward
Usage note
It most often appears in the pattern “defacement of …”, which is worth copying when you use it.
Natural pattern: defacement of …
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
More ways to use defacement
- “The defacement of an Italian mosaic during the Turkish invasion.”noun
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Common Patterns and Combinations
How this word naturally appears with others.
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More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin
Synonyms
Sense: damaging the appearance
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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.