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vanishing

/ˈvænɪʃɪŋ/
/ˈvænɪʃɪŋ/
IPA guide

Other forms: vanishings

When something is there one minute and gone the next, you can describe its disappearance as a vanishing.

Magicians practice long and hard to pull off the trick they call vanishing, while the art of vanishing seems to come easily to cats. Any time something — or someone — disappears mysteriously, it's a vanishing. The word vanishing is a gerund, or a noun that's made by adding ing to a verb, in this case vanish. It in turn comes from the Latin evanescere, "disappear," whose root word is vanus, or "empty."

Definitions of vanishing
  1. noun
    a sudden or mysterious disappearance
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    type of:
    disappearance
    the event of passing out of sight
  2. noun
    a sudden disappearance from sight
    see moresee less
    type of:
    disappearance, disappearing
    the act of leaving secretly or without explanation
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