Standard Lemma guide

defacement

noun · 4 senses · updated from the 2026-07-25 local source snapshot

Definitions and examples are grouped by meaning. Pronunciation, history, word forms, translations, descendants, synonyms, antonyms, derived terms, and related words appear whenever the source provides them.

Sound

Pronunciation

Each Play button uses your device's default local English voice, or a natural local fallback. The selected voice name appears after playback. This is synthesized speech, not a source recording.

  • /dɪˈfeɪsmənt/
  • US: Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.
  • rhymes with -eɪsmənt

1

noun

Meaning 1

An act of defacing; an instance of visibly marring or disfiguring something.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: countable, uncountable

Examples

  • Some consider the defacement of the Sphinx to be the most egregious crime of Napolean's campaigns.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

2

noun

Meaning 2

An act of voiding or devaluing; nullification of the face value.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: countable, uncountable

Examples

  • The soldiers found a variety of creative uses for their payment scrip after its defacement to scrap paper; some used it as toilet paper.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

3

noun

Meaning 3

A symbol added to a flag or coat of arms to change it or make it different from another.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: countable, uncountable

Topics: government, heraldry, history, hobbies, human-sciences, lifestyle, monarchy, nobility, politics, sciences, vexillology

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

4

noun

Meaning 4

the act of damaging the appearance or surface of something

Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0

Examples

  • the defacement of an Italian mosaic during the Turkish invasion
  • he objected to the dam's massive disfigurement of the landscape

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: disfigurement, disfiguration

Antonyms: none provided

Broader terms: damage, harm, hurt, scathe

History

Etymology

Etymology tree English deface Proto-Indo-European *-mn̥ Proto-Indo-European *-mn̥tom Proto-Italic *-mentom Latin -mentum Old French -mentbor. Middle English -ment English -ment English defacement From deface + -ment.

Across languages

Translations

7 source translations are retained for this English entry.

  • Catalan: desfiguració — marring, disfiguring
  • Finnish: turmeleminen — marring, disfiguring
  • Irish: lot — marring, disfiguring
  • Irish: milleadh — marring, disfiguring
  • Catalan: devaluació — voiding, nullification
  • Finnish: mitätöinti — voiding, nullification
  • Finnish: lisäys — added symbol