expunction
Official record deletion
Expunction is the act of expunging—erasing, deleting, or striking out completely.
The word appears most often in legal contexts, where expunction of a criminal record means its official erasure: She filed for expunction of her juvenile arrest.
Outside legal use, expungement is more common for the same meaning.
Removal of content
- obliterationTotal destruction or erasure
- effacementAct of erasing completely
- eradicationTotal elimination of something
- eliminationAct of removing entirely
removal · wiping · excision · extirpation · striking · blotting out · crossing out · rubbing out
Making impermeable
- pardonOfficial release from punishment
- acquittalFormal clearing of charges
- exonerationOfficial clearing of blame
- dismissalRemoval from position
clemency · rehabilitation · quashing · absolution · petition · court order · juvenile records · criminal history
Failing to retain memories
- oblivionComplete erasure from memory
- fadingGradual loss of intensity
- vanishingCeasing to be visible
- burialPlacing deceased underground
suppression · repression · amnesia · disremembering · damnatio memoriae · unpersoning · airbrushing · memory hole
deletion
Removal of content
- obliterationTotal destruction or erasure
- effacementAct of erasing completely
- eradicationTotal elimination of something
elimination · removal · wiping · excision · extirpation · striking · blotting out · crossing out · rubbing out · redaction
sealing
Making impermeable
- pardonOfficial release from punishment
- acquittalFormal clearing of charges
- exonerationOfficial clearing of blame
dismissal · clemency · rehabilitation · quashing · absolution · petition · court order · juvenile records · criminal history · background check
forgetting
Failing to retain memories
burial · suppression · repression · amnesia · disremembering · damnatio memoriae · unpersoning · airbrushing · memory hole
- removalremove, elimination, delete, erasing, erase
- record clearingclean slate, sealed records, sealing, erasure, purge
- reversalsreverse, undo, revert, overturn, flip
expunctionpreservation
Maintaining something's condition
retention · recording · documentation · archiving · inscription
expunctiondisclosure
Act of revealing information
publication · revelation · unsealing · exposure · release
expunctioncommemoration
Act of honoring memory
memorialization · perpetuation · enshrinement · immortalization · remembrance
expunge, expunged, expunging, expunges, expungement, unexpunged