deletion

noun

de·​le·​tion di-ˈlē-shən 

dē-

1

: the act of deleting

2

a

: something deleted

b(1)

: the absence of a section of genetic material from a gene or chromosome

(2)

: the mutational process that results in a deletion

Synonyms of deletion

• omission

Examples of deletion in a Sentence

one of the deletions from the final cut of the movie turned out to be my one line of dialogue

Recent Examples on the Web

However, the company retains data for up to 30 days after disconnection before deletion — and critically, financial conversations held in chat logs may persist indefinitely even after bank access is revoked. —Gabriel Alin Zainescu, Forbes.com, 18 May 2026

In other words, the Redmond giant’s researchers had every incentive to find something positive about AI in the workplace, but instead found that blindly trusting LLMs to handle internal documents will almost certainly result in everything from errors to data deletion. —Krystle Vermes, Futurism, 14 May 2026

The district received confirmation that the data was deleted in October of 2025, and yet the report was never deleted as part of that deletion activity. —Karen Morfitt, CBS News, 14 May 2026

In places with privacy laws, such as California, Illinois and the European Union, people can submit a data access request to see what biometric data a company holds and, in some cases, ask for its deletion. —Jonathan S. Weissman, The Conversation, 28 Apr. 2026

Word History

Etymology

Latin deletion-, deletio destruction, from delēre

First Known Use

1590, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Rhymes for deletion

• accretion
• completion
• concretion
• depletion
• excretion
• repletion
• secretion
• carburetion
• grecian
• hypersecretion

Medical Definition

deletion

noun

de·​le·​tion di-ˈlē-shən 

1

: the absence of a section of genetic material from a gene or chromosome

2

: the mutational process that results in a deletion