Synonyms of efface

efface

verb

i-ˈfās 

as in to erase

to destroy all traces of

when the supply ship finally arrived, it discovered that virtually all evidence of the colony at Roanoke had been effaced

Synonyms & Similar Words

• erase
• eradicate
• abolish
• destroy
• obliterate
• expunge
• exterminate
• annihilate
• cancel
• liquidate
• extirpate
• sweep (away)
• wipe out
• shatter
• demolish
• stamp (out)
• blot out
• clean (up)
• dismantle
• ruin
• kill
• root (out)
• discard
• rub out
• snuff (out)
• flatten
• devastate
• dissolve
• black out
• ravage
• fragment
• consume
• wreck
• decimate
• tear down
• mow (down)
• powder
• raze
• waste
• expel
• terminate
• smash
• eject
• devour
• finish
• dash
• total
• excise
• oust
• ditch
• pulverize
• kill off
• atomize
• blow up
• doom
• jettison
• blast
• throw out
• cut
• splinter
• zap
• dynamite

Antonyms & Near Antonyms

• preserve
• protect
• save
• conserve
• create
• make
• build
• construct
• form
• shape
• manufacture
• forge
• fabricate
• restore
• reconstruct
• frame
• renew
• patch
• repair
• rebuild
• fix
• mend
• fashion
• recondition
• renovate
• revamp

Example Sentences

Recent Examples of efface

Their struggle has upturned the tabletop candle that illuminates the scene and any moment will surely extinguish it, effacing the giddy pattern formed by the writhing bodies and glowing, veiny bladder skin. — Julian Bell, The New York Review of Books, 25 Apr. 2026

Each offers a lesson for tomorrow’s leaders who want to leverage this technology without effacing the human touch. — Michael Ashley, Forbes.com, 20 Feb. 2026

The leaps in time have the eerie effect of effacing time—the layered succession of images implying their simultaneity in Lidia’s mind. — Richard Brody, New Yorker, 13 Jan. 2026

This collection represents his earnest and thrilling mission to efface the line between poetry and prose, to introduce us to the possibility that each is affirmed and made complete by the other. — Emma Alpern, Vulture, 2 Dec. 2025