displace
Americanverb (used with object)
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to compel (a person or persons) to leave home, country, etc.
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to move or put out of the usual or proper place.
- Synonyms:
- relocate
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to take the place of; replace; supplant.
Fiction displaces fact.
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to remove from a position, office, or dignity.
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Obsolete. to rid oneself of.
verb
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to move from the usual or correct location
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to remove from office or employment
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to occupy the place of; replace; supplant
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to force (someone) to leave home or country, as during a war
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chem to replace (an atom or group in a chemical compound) by another atom or group
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physics to cause a displacement of (a quantity of liquid, usually water of a specified type and density)
Synonym Usage
Displace, misplace mean to put something in a different place from where it should be. To displace often means to shift something solid and comparatively immovable, more or less permanently from its place: The flood displaced houses from their foundations. To misplace is to put an object in a wrong place so that it is difficult to find: Papers belonging in the safe were misplaced and temporarily lost.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Conjugated Forms
Present
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have displacedperfect
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has displacedperfect 3rd person singular
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displacessingular 3rd person
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have been displacingperfect progressive
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are displacingprogressive
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has been displacingperfect progressive 3rd person singular
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displacingparticiple
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am displacingprogressive 1st person singular
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is displacingprogressive 3rd person singular
Past
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had displacedperfect
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were displacingprogressive plural
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displacedsimple
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displacedparticiple
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had been displacingperfect progressive
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was displacingprogressive singular
Future
Etymology
Origin of displace
1545–55; dis- 1 + place, perhaps modeled on Middle French desplacer
Explanation
When you displace something, you move it to a new position — either in a concrete sense, like moving a chair, or in an abstract sense, like firing someone from a job. Displace means to forcefully move or remove something — or someone — but it can also mean “to take the place of,” again, with some force. If your brother is sitting in your seat, you might say, “Get out of my chair! Don’t make me have to displace you!” Similarly, when a new employee is hired at work, she might displace the person who had the job before.
Vocabulary lists containing displace
100 SAT Words Beginning with "D"
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100 Great Words from "Fahrenheit 451" -- Part I Vocabulary
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"Maus II: And Here My Troubles Began" by Art Spiegelman
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
A cheaper robot worker would not solve all of those problems, but it fits neatly into Beijing’s broader answer: to make factories more automated, more productive and harder to displace.
From MarketWatch • May 27, 2026
Moments of censorship or political pressure rarely eliminate satire; while they may displace it, forcing it into new platforms, formats and voices, the critical perspectives of satire remain.
From Salon • May 19, 2026
It ended last year and started this one in a deep hole, succumbing to fears that artificial intelligence could displace software.
From Barron's • May 7, 2026
The new fear is that agentic commerce, featuring AI agents doing consumers’ shopping for them, will displace people tapping, swiping or clicking with their credit or debit cards.
From The Wall Street Journal • May 4, 2026
I’ve got guts, Jerry murmured, getting up by degrees, careful not to displace any of his bones or sinews.
From "The Chocolate War" by Robert Cormier
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
