Other forms: disappearances
A disappearance is the act of going out of sight or being lost. The disappearance of the ship, a mysterious disappearance, since her disappearance.
In news reporting it is the standard word for somebody missing in unexplained circumstances, and it deliberately says nothing about what happened. Enforced disappearance is a term in international law for people taken by a state and denied. It also means the gradual vanishing of anything: the disappearance of the hedgerows. Note disappear, and that appearance and disappearance cover both being seen and turning up.
1noundisappearanceThe act of going out of sight or being lost.
“Police are investigating the disappearance of a teenager last seen at the bus station.”
2noungradualThe gradual vanishing of something.
“Farmers are worried by the disappearance of bees from the countryside.”
disappearance is a going out of sight.
Middle English
disapeeren
English
disappear
English, today
disappearance
Built from
From disappear + -ance. disappear comes from Middle English disapeeren, equivalent to dis + appear. Displaced native fordwīnan. Displaced native cwincan, whose causative persists as quench (“put out (fire)”).
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA