erase
verb
Simple meaning
Remove from memory or existence.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
ihraysSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
ɪˈɹeɪs
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.
verb
Remove by or as if by rubbing or erasing
“Please erase the formula on the blackboard--it is wrong!”
Remove from memory or existence
“The Turks erased the Armenians in 1915.”
transitive
To remove (markings or information).
transitive
To obliterate information from (a storage medium), such as to clear or (with magnetic storage) to demagnetize.
intransitive
To be erased (have markings removed, have information removed, or be cleared of information).
transitive
To disregard (a group, an orientation, etc.); to prevent from having an active role in society.
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- B2 · Upper Intermediate
- Frequency
- Moderately Common
- Typical Use
- Neutral / general English
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: Remove by or as if by rubbing or erasing
Used this way, erase is a common word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It usually sounds natural in a wide range of settings.
“Please erase the formula on the blackboard--it is wrong!”
- Emotional tone
- Neutral
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Not strongly marked
- How common
- Common
- Connotation
- No strong connotation
- Usage feel
- Neutral and straightforward
Nearby words
- rub out , rarer, so it draws attention
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
More ways to use erase
- “Please erase the formula on the blackboard--it is wrong!”verb
- “The Turks erased the Armenians in 1915.”verb
- “Who erased the files from my hard disk?”verb
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Common Patterns and Combinations
How this word naturally appears with others.
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Word Family
Related forms, grouped by how they connect.
Inflected forms
Grammatical variations of the same word.
An implement used to erase something.
Compound terms
Established multiword terms.
An eraser that removes ink marks.
An eraser that removes chalk marks from blackboard.
An eraser made of rubber (or of a synthetic material with properties similar to rubber).
An eraser made of rubber (or of a synthetic material with properties similar to rubber).
Related words
Connected by subject or meaning, not by word formation.
A read-only memory chip that can be erased by ultraviolet light and programmed again with new data.
More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin
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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.