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Definitions: Oblivion |
OblivionNoun1. The state of being disregarded or forgotten. 2. Total forgetfulness; "he sought the great oblivion of sleep". Source: WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved. |
Date "oblivion" was first used in popular English literature: sometime before 1120. (references) |
Etymology: Oblivion \Ob*liv"i*on\, noun. [Latin expression oblivio, akin to oblivisci to forget: compare to Old French expression oblivion.]. (Websters 1913) |
| Domain | Definitions |
Satire | OBLIVION, n. The state or condition in which the wicked cease from struggling and the dreary are at rest. Fame's eternal dumping ground. Cold storage for high hopes. A place where ambitious authors meet their works without pride and their betters without envy. A dormitory without an alarm clock. Source: Devil's Dictionary. |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
Synonyms: OblivionSynonyms: limbo (n), obliviousness (n). (additional references) |
| Context | Synonyms within Context (source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus). |
Anachronism | Disregard of time, neglect of time, oblivion of time. |
Endearment | Phrase: " faint heart neer won fair lady"; "kisses honeyed by oblivion ". |
Forgiveness | Noun: forgiveness, pardon, condonation, grace, remission, absolution, amnesty, oblivion; indulgence; reprieve. |
Inexistence | Noun: inexistence; nonexistence, nonsubsistence; nonentity, nil; negativeness; Adjective: nullity; nihility, nihilism; tabula rasa, blank; abeyance; absence; no such thing; nonbeing, nothingness, oblivion. |
Ingratitude | Noun: ingratitude, thanklessness, oblivion of benefits, unthankfulness. |
Memory | Redeem from oblivion; keep the memory alive, keep the wound green, pour salt in the wound, reopen old wounds'; tangere ulcus; keep up the memory of; commemorate; (celebrate). |
Oblivion | Verb: forget; be forgetful; Adjective: fall into oblivion, sink into oblivion; have a short memory; Noun: have no head. |
Short memory, treacherous memory, poor memory, loose memory, slippery memory, failing memory; decay of memory, failure of memory, lapse of memory; waters of Lethe, waters of oblivion. | |
Noun: oblivion, obliviousness, lethe; forgetfulness; Adjective: amnesia; obliteration; of, insensibility; to the past. | |
Adjective: forgotten; Verb: unremembered, past recollection, bygone, out of mind; buried in oblivion, sunk in oblivion; clean forgotten; gone out of one's head, gone out of one's recollection. | |
Unlearn; efface; , discharge from the memory; consign to oblivion, consign to the tomb of the Capulets; think no more of; (turn the attention from); cast behind one's back, wean one's thoughts from; let bygones be bygones;(forgive). | |
Time | D calendas Groecas; "panting Time toileth after him in vain"; "'gainst the tooth of time and razure of oblivion "; " rich with the spoils of time"; tempus edax rerum; "the long hours come and go"; "the time is out of joint"; "Time rolls his ceaseless course"; "Time the foe of man's dominion"; "time wasted is existence, used is life"; truditur dies die; volat hora per orbem; carpe diem. |
| Source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus. | |
Crosswords: Oblivion |
| English words defined with "oblivion": obliviousness. (references) |
| Specialty definitions using "oblivion": FOOL ♦ Hair, Hairs ♦ Nadab ♦ Oblivion ♦ right to oblivion. (references) |
| Domain | Usage | |
Screenplays | When they find us, they will crush us, grind us into little pieces, then blast us into oblivion! (Episode I: The Phantom Menace; writing credit: George Lucas.) I would choose oblivion over this travesty. (Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver; writing credit: Amy Hennig) Let us drink, till we roll under the table in vomit and oblivion. (Becket; writing credit: Edward Anhalt; Jean Anouilh) Say good-bye to all of this and hello to oblivion. (The Rocky Horror Picture Show; writing credit: Richard O'Brien; Jim Sharman) | |
Lyrics | Watch it spin around to a beautiful oblivion (Inside Out; performing artist: Eve 6) Oblivion is all you crave (ADDICTED TO LOVE; performing artist: Robert Palmer) One for remembrance, one for oblivion (A Pale Horse Against Time; performing artist: The Who) The soft dive of oblivion, oblivion (How's It Going To Be; performing artist: Third Eye Blind) On the edge of oblivion (Everybody Have Fun Tonight; performing artist: Wang Chung) | |
Movie/TV Titles | Oblivion (2003) Microscopic Liquid Subway to Oblivion (1970) Oblivion (1997) Living in Oblivion (1995) Oblivion (1994) | |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | ||
| Domain | Title | ||
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Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |||
| Author | Quotation |
Antoine Rivarol | Oblivion is the rule and fame the exception, of humanity. |
George Eliot | Kisses honeyed by oblivion. |
Marcus Aurelius Antoninus | As for life, it is a battle and a sojourning in a strange land; but the fame that comes after is oblivion. |
Pliny The Elder | God has no power over the past except to cover it with oblivion. |
Sir Thomas Browne | But the iniquity of oblivion blindly scattereth her poppy, and deals with the memory of men without distinction to merit of perpetuity. |
William Shakespeare | Time hath a wallet at his back, wherein he puts. Alms for oblivion, a great-sized monster of ingratitudes. |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | |
| Title | Author | Quote |
Les Miserables | Hugo, Victor | he did not seek to drown grief in oblivion, but to exalt and to dignify it by hope. |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | ||
| Subject | Topic | Quote |
Health | Greek and Roman writers described symptoms similar to those that we know as AD. In the 16th century, Shakespeare wrote about very old age as a time of second childishness and mere oblivion, suggesting that the symptoms of AD, or something quite like it, were known and recognized then. Despite this long familiarity, relatively little was known until recently about the processes in the brain that lead to Alzheimers disease. (references) | |
Lexicography | Devil's Dictionary | FOOL, n. A person who pervades the domain of intellectual speculation and diffuses himself through the channels of moral activity. He is omnific, omniform, omnipercipient, omniscience, omnipotent. He it was who invented letters, printing, the railroad, the steamboat, the telegraph, the platitude and the circle of the sciences. He created patriotism and taught the nations war -- founded theology, philosophy, law, medicine and Chicago. He established monarchical and republican government. He is from everlasting to everlasting -- such as creation's dawn beheld he fooleth now. In the morning of time he sang upon primitive hills, and in the noonday of existence headed the procession of being. His grandmotherly hand was warmly tucked-in the set sun of civilization, and in the twilight he prepares Man's evening meal of milk-and-morality and turns down the covers of the universal grave. And after the rest of us shall have retired for the night of eternal oblivion he will sit up to write a history of human civilization. |
Source: compiled by the editor from ICON Group International, Inc.; see credits. | ||
| "Oblivion" is generally used as a noun (singular) -- approximately 100.00% of the time. "Oblivion" is used about 247 times out of a sample of 100 million words spoken or written in English. Its rank is based on over 700,000 words used in the English language. Some parts-of-speech are not covered due to the samples used by the British National Corpus. (note: percents less than one-hundredth of one percent have been omitted) |
| Parts of Speech | Percent | Usage per 100 Million Words | Rank in English |
| Noun (singular) | 100% | 247 | 18,964 |
Source: compiled by the editor from several corpora; see credits.
Expressions using "oblivion": act of oblivion ♦ bill of oblivion ♦ fall into oblivion ♦ oblivion of benefits ♦ oblivion of time ♦ pass into oblivion ♦ rescue from oblivion ♦ right to oblivion ♦ sink into oblivion ♦ waters of oblivion. Additional references. | |
| Hypenated Usage | |
Ending with "oblivion": time-oblivion. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| The following statistics estimate the number of searches per day across the major English-language search engines as identified by various trade publications. Hyperlinks lead to commercial use of the expression at Amazon.com. |
| Language | Translations for "oblivion"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Albanian | prirje të harroj (obliviousness), harresë (forgetfulness, limbo, obliteration, rasure, silence). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Arabic | نسيان (forgetfulness, limbo, obliviousness, omission, slip), سلوان (consolation, solace). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Bulgarian | незачитане (defiance, disregard, impiety, inconsideration, slight), забравяне (obliviousness), забрава (forgetfulness, limbo, obliviousness, silence), забвение (silence), амнистия (amnesty, pardon), пренебрегване (blinking, neglect), помилване (amnesty, caressing, fondling, free pardon, pardon, reprieve, stroking). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Chinese | 埋沒 , 忘却 (Oblivious, raze, razed, razing). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Czech | zapomnìtlivost (forgetfulness), zapomenutí (limbo, obliviousness), nevšímavost (disregard). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Danish | krav om sletning (right to erasure of data, right to oblivion). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Dutch | recht op verwijdering van gegevens (right to erasure of data, right to oblivion). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Farsi | فراموشی (Amnesia, Forget), نسیان (Amnesia, Lapse), گمنامی (Anonymity, Obscurity), ازخاطرزداءی . (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Finnish | unohdus. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
French | oubli (obliviousness). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
German | vergessenheit, Nichtbeachtung (non observance, non-observance). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Greek | λήθη. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Hebrew | שכחה (amnesia, forgetfulness, obliviousness), התעלמות (disappearance, disregard, estrangement, obliviousness, overlooking, oversight, skip), נשיה (forgetfulness, limbo). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Hungarian | feledés (silence), elfelejtés. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Italian | oblio. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Japanese Kanji | 失念 (forgetting, lapse of memory), 忘却 (forgetfulness, lapse of memory). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Japanese Katakana | しつねん (forgetting, lapse of memory), ぼうきゃく (forgetfulness, lapse of memory). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Manx | neuimraa, neugheillid, neuchooinaghtyn (amnesia, loss of memory), jarrood (forget, forgetfulness, leave out, overlook, reverie). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Pig Latin | oblivionay oblívio, rasura (blot, deletion, ere), esquecimento (failure rate, forget me not, lethean, limbo, neglect, omission, ostracize). (various references) uitare (forgetfulness, forgetting, forgiveness, forgiving, limbo, obliteration). (various references) забвение (obliteration, obliviousness). (various references) zaborav (limbo). (various references) olvido (absentmindedness, forgetfulness, obliviousness, omission), falta de atención (inattention), desprecio (contempt). (various references) glömska (forgetfulness). (various references) การลืม. (various references) unutulma, unutma (don't forget, forgetting, keep in mind, omission), kayıtsızlık (carelessness, forgetfulness, indifference, nonchalance, unconcern), genel af (act of oblivion, amnesty, general pardon), farkında olmama (unconsciousness), af (absolution, act of grace, amnesty, dismissal, excusing, forgiveness, forgiving, mercy, pardon, remission). (various references) забуття (condonation, effacement, forgetfulness, limbo, neglect, obliteration, obliviousness, silence), амністія (amnesty, pardon), помилування. (various references) sự lãng quên sắc lệnh ân xá. (various references) ebargofiant, angof (forgetfulness). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Language | Period | Translations |
| Greek | 700 BCE-300 CE | amnestia. (various references) |
| Latin | 500 BCE-Modern | oblivio, oblivione, oblivionem, oblivioni, oblivionis, obliviosus. (various references) |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | ||
Derivations | |
Words beginning with "oblivion": oblivions. (additional references) | |
| |
"Oblivion" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: ablivion, obivlion, oblibion, obliv, obliveon, oblivian, oblivon, Olavio, orblivion, Oubilin, poblacion. (additional references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references). | |
| # of Phoneme Matches | Pronunciation | Word(s) rhyming with "oblivion" (pronounced ubli"vēun) |
| 3 | -ē u n | accordion, agrarian, alien, amphibian, arcadian, authoritarian, barbarian, bohemian, Campion, carrion, centenarian, centurion, chameleon, champion, circadian, Clarion, collodion, comedian, contrarian, criterion, custodian, Cyprian, disciplinarian, draconian, egalitarian, equestrian, galleon, gorgonian, Guardian, halcyon, herculean, historian, humanitarian, hyperborean, lesbian, libertarian, librarian, majoritarian, mammalian, median, mediterranean, meridian, Napoleon, nickelodeon, nonsectarian, obsidian, octogenarian, Odeon, ovarian, pagurian, parliamentarian, pedestrian, planarian, plutonian, praetorian, presbyterian, proletarian, salutatorian, scorpion, sectarian, seminarian, septuagenarian, simian, subterranean, symbion, theologian, thespian, totalitarian, unitarian, utilitarian, utopian, valedictorian, valerian, vegetarian, veterinarian. |
Source: compiled by the editor (additional references); see credits. | ||
Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams | |
| Words within the letters "b-i-i-l-n-o-o-v" | |
-2 letters: violin. | |
-3 letters: blini, oboli, ovoli. | |
-4 letters: blin, boil, bolo, boon, lino, lion, lobo, loin, loon, noil, nolo, obol, olio, vino, viol. | |
-5 letters: bin, bio, boo, ion, lib, lin, lob, loo, nib, nil, nob, noo, obi, oil. | |
| Words containing the letters "b-i-i-l-n-o-o-v" | |
+1 letter: boliviano, oblivions. | |
+2 letters: bloviation, bolivianos. | |
+3 letters: bloviations, overboiling. | |
+5 letters: obliviousness. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro. | |
Hexadecimal (or equivalents, 770AD-1900s) (references)4F 62 6C 69 76 69 6F 6E |
| Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519; backwards) (references)
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| American Sign Language (origins from 1620-1817 in Italy and, especially, France) (references)
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| Semaphore (1791, in France) (references)
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| Braille (1829, in France) (references)
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Morse Code (1836) (references)--- -... .-.. .. ...- .. --- -. |
| Dancing Men (Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, 1903) (references)
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| Amazon.com BOOKS: Search for: "oblivion" |
