Ablate

//əˈbleɪt// verb

verb ·Moderate ·College level

Definitions

Verb
  1. 1
    To remove or decrease something by cutting, erosion, melting, evaporation, or vaporization. transitive
  2. 2
    remove an organ or bodily structure wordnet
  3. 3
    To undergo ablation; to become melted or evaporated and removed at a high temperature. intransitive
  4. 4
    wear away through erosion or vaporization wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms
abateabradeabraseabsorbassimilateatomize

Etymology

From Middle English ablat (“taken away”), from Latin ablātus, past participle of auferō (“to remove”), see -ate (verb-forming suffix). First attested in the 1500s, it became obsolete by the early 1600s. Returned into use as a back-formation from ablation.

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.