oblivion

noun

obliv·​i·​on ə-ˈbli-vē-ən 

ō-,

ä-

1

: the fact or condition of not remembering : a state marked by lack of awareness or consciousness

seeking the oblivion of sleep

drank herself into oblivion

2

: the condition or state of being forgotten or unknown

contentedly accepted his political oblivion

technology destined/headed for oblivion

… took the Huskers from oblivion to glory—and their two national championships …

—D. S. Looney

3

: the state of being destroyed

a little park bulldozed into oblivion

Did you know?

Oblivion and the River Lethe

Oblivion asks forgetfulness of us in both its meaning and etymology. The word’s Latin source, oblīvīscī, means “to forget; to put out of mind,” and since its 14th century adoption into English, oblivion has hewed close to meanings having to do with forgetting. The word has also long had an association with the River Lethe, which according to Greek myth flowed through the Underworld and caused anyone who drank its water to forget their past; 17th century poet John Milton wrote about “Lethe the River of Oblivion” in Paradise Lost. The adjective oblivious (“lacking remembrance, memory, or mindful attention”) followed oblivion a century later, but not into oblivion—both words have proved obdurate against the erosive currents of time.

Synonyms of oblivion

• ignorance
• forgetfulness
• nirvana
• blindness
• innocence

Examples of oblivion in a Sentence

The technology is destined for oblivion.

The names of the people who lived here long ago have faded into oblivion.

His theories have faded into scientific oblivion.

Her work was rescued from oblivion when it was rediscovered in the early 1900s.

After being awake for three days straight, he longed for the oblivion of sleep.

She drank herself into oblivion.

The little village was bulldozed into oblivion to make way for the airport.

Recent Examples on the Web

In the 1940s, at the Viking Press, Cowley initiated the resurrection of William Faulkner from oblivion, a project that put the writer on the syllabus in the ever-expanding postwar university, brought the rest of his work back into print, and surely helped win him the 1949 Nobel Prize in Literature. —Michael Gorra, The Atlantic, 4 Nov. 2025

Netflix is having one final clear-out before the holiday season, and lots of great movies and TV shows are facing oblivion. —Griff Griffin, MSNBC Newsweek, 4 Nov. 2025

Back at the trailer that evening, the fire session feels better than ever, a vertiginous slide into oblivion. —Rowan Jacobsen, Harpers Magazine, 24 Oct. 2025

And of course all these remembrances are motivated, finally, by a desire to save, to whatever extent possible, people and stories and the truth as the authors understand it from impending oblivion. —Literary Hub, 21 Oct. 2025

Word History

Etymology

Middle English oblivioun, borrowed from Anglo-French oblivion, obliviun, borrowed from Latin oblīviōn-, oblīviō "state of forgetting, dismissal from the memory," from oblīv-, stem of oblīvīscī "to forget, put out of mind" (from ob- "toward, facing" + -līvīscī, inchoative derivative of a stem līv- of uncertain meaning and origin) + -iōn-, -iō, suffix of action nouns formed from compound verbs — more at ob-

First Known Use

14th century, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Rhymes for oblivion

• vivian
• vivien

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Kids Definition

oblivion

noun

obliv·​i·​on ə-ˈbliv-ē-ən 

ō-,

ä-

1

: the state of forgetting or having forgotten or of being unaware or unconscious

2

: the state of being forgotten