obliteration
Complete wiping out
Obliteration is complete destruction or erasure—wiping something out so thoroughly that no trace remains.
A city faces obliteration in war; a memory undergoes obliteration over time.
The word emphasizes totality: not just damage but annihilation.
The bombing brought obliteration to the village.
Years of neglect led to the obliteration of the old records.
Utter, complete destruction
- devastationSevere widespread destruction
- demolitionDeliberate structural destruction
- ruinationState of complete destruction
- decimationNear-total destruction
extermination · eradication · razing · leveling · flattening · desolation · razing · carnage
Utter, complete destruction
- exterminationComplete destruction of a group
- eradicationTotal elimination of something
- extirpationComplete destruction or removal
- eliminationAct of removing entirely
die-off · dying out · disappearance · loss · genocide · ethnic cleansing · cultural erasure · species loss
Removal of content
- expungementOfficial record removal
- effacementAct of erasing completely
- redactionObscuring sensitive text
- excisionCutting out of tissue
removal · purge · cancellation · expunction · scrubbing · wiping · blotting out · striking out
Failure to recall
- amnesiaPathological loss of recall
- suppressionForcible prevention or concealment
- repressionUnconscious blocking of thoughts
- blocking outObstructing from awareness or view
forgetting · fading · dimming · blurring · obscuring · burying · denial · dissociation
annihilation
Utter, complete destruction
- devastationSevere widespread destruction
- demolitionDeliberate structural destruction
- ruinationState of complete destruction
decimation · extermination · eradication · razing · leveling · flattening · desolation · razing · carnage · havoc
annihilation
Utter, complete destruction
- exterminationComplete destruction of a group
- eradicationTotal elimination of something
- extirpationComplete destruction or removal
elimination · die-off · dying out · disappearance · loss · genocide · ethnic cleansing · cultural erasure · species loss · mass extinction
deletion
Removal of content
- expungementOfficial record removal
- effacementAct of erasing completely
- redactionObscuring sensitive text
excision · removal · purge · cancellation · expunction · scrubbing · wiping · blotting out · striking out · crossing out
memory loss
Failure to recall
- amnesiaPathological loss of recall
- suppressionForcible prevention or concealment
- repressionUnconscious blocking of thoughts
blocking out · forgetting · fading · dimming · blurring · obscuring · burying · denial · dissociation · blanking out
- catastrophesdisasters, disaster, natural disasters, catastrophe, apocalypse
- dangersdanger, peril, hazard, risk, menace
- deletiondelete, erase, erasure, cross out, strike out
- destructiondestruction, destroying, demolishing, devastation, ruination
- eliminationremoval, exclusion, eradication, expulsion, deletion
- Beatdownsbeatdown, drubbing, thrashing, trouncing, blowout
obliterationpreservation
Maintaining something's condition
conservation · protection · survival · safeguarding · salvation
obliterationcreation
Making something exist
construction · building · restoration · reconstruction · re-creation
obliterationcommemoration
Act of honoring memory
memorialization · preservation · documentation · recording · remembrance