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In medieval and Renaissance manuscripts, a series of dots was used to mark mistakes or to label material that should be deleted from a text, and those deletion dots—known as puncta delentia—can help you remember the history of expunge. Puncta comes from the Latin verb pungere, which can be translated as “to prick or sting” (and you can imagine that a scribe may have felt stung when their mistakes were so punctuated in a manuscript). Pungere is also an ancestor of expunge, as well as a parent of other dotted, pointed, or stinging terms such as punctuate, compunction, poignant, puncture, and pungent.
Examples of expunge in a Sentence
Quinlan Bentley, Cincinnati Enquirer, 30 June 2025
That pay-for-play, which has taken so many forms over the decades, will be expunged from the system?
—Jon Wilner, Mercury News, 10 June 2025
Newsweek has been unable to verify and confirm if both her federal and state record has been expunged.
—Thomas G. Moukawsher, MSNBC Newsweek, 24 Apr. 2025
The bill also contains provisions to expunge past convictions for offenses legalized by the measure.
—A.j. Herrington, Forbes.com, 16 Apr. 2025
See All Example Sentences for expunge
Cite this Entry
“Expunge.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/expunge. Accessed 15 Jul. 2025.
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Legal Definition
expunge
transitive verb
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