Basic+ Word of the Day: erase

erase (verb) past tense: erased

Erase means ‘to rub out.’

• Alex erased the answer to the math problem.
• If you do the crossword puzzle in ink, you can't erase the wrong answers.

Erase also means ‘to eliminate or remove.’

• Fiona wished that she could erase the car accident from her memory.
• Ed erased the phone message.
• You should erase your hard drive before you sell your computer.

Related words

eraser: a device, such as a piece of rubber or cloth for erasing marks of pencil, chalk, etc. Example: “The teacher used the eraser to clean the whiteboard.”

erasure: a mark left after erasing. Example: “Bob could see, from all the erasures that there had been several changes to the document.”

In pop culture

Boy Erased is a movie based on a true story about a young gay man who undergoes conversion therapy to attempt to convert him from gay to straight (heterosexual). Watch the trailer.

There are other meanings of erase.