oblivion

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How could they even know that this oblivion was altogether genuine?

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Definitions (11)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (3)

  1. noun The condition or quality of being completely forgotten: "He knows that everything he writes is consigned to posterity (oblivion's other, seemingly more benign, face)” (Joyce Carol Oates).
  2. noun The act or an instance of forgetting; total forgetfulness: sought the great oblivion of sleep.
  3. noun Official overlooking of offenses; amnesty.

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Examples (50)

  • One shot, and--oblivion. —  Prairie Flowers
  • The good was condemned with the bad, and the noble volume was lost in comparative oblivion--only to be finally resurrected and its full value and significance revealed by the keen scientific insight of Darwin (1859). —  My Studio Neighbors
  • There was a detonation as if the universe had been blasted into oblivion--then darkness, and numbed silence Carr, you're hurt!" —  Creatures of Vibration
  • It is not their function to commemorate the abominations of heathenism; they would rather bury it in eternal oblivion--_premat nox alta_--but they cannot entirely tell the triumphs of their spiritual heroes without some reference, however faint, to the conquered enemies The earliest recorded conflicts between the new and the old creed are connected with fountains. —  The Book-Hunter A New Edition, with a Memoir of the Author
  • His spirit rose with the strife, filling him with a strange sense of exaltation Suddenly the universe seemed wrapped in flame, there was a deafening crash as though the eternal hills were being rent asunder, and then--oblivion When that instant of blinding light and deafening sound had passed John Darrell lay prostrate, unconscious on the rocks Chapter XXVIII AS A DREAM WHEN ONE AWAKETH As the morning sun arose over the snowy summits of the Great Divide, the sleeper on the rocks stirred restlessly; then gradually awoke to consciousness--a delightful consciousness of renewed life and vigor, a subtle sense of revivification of body and mind. —  At the Time Appointed
 

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Roget's II: The New Thesaurus, Third Edition by the Editors of the American Heritage® Dictionary. Copyright © 2003, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Etymologies (2)

Toggle American Heritage etymologies American Heritage Dictionary (1)

  1. Middle English, from Old French, from Latin oblīviō, oblīviōn-, from oblīvīscī, to forget; see lei- in Indo-European roots.

Toggle Century etymologies Century Dictionary (1)

  1. from French oblivion = Italian oblivione, from Latin oblivio(n-), also later or poetical oblivium (later Italian obblio), forgetfulness, a being forgotten, a forgetting, from oblivius, forgotten, from oblivisci, past participle oblitus, forget, from ob-, over, + livisci, a deponent inchoative verb, prob. from livere, grow dark: see livid.
 

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/əbˈlɪviən/
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