Words / B2

dis-PLAYS/dɪsˈpleɪs/

To displace is to force people or things out of their usual place: displaced families; displace a volume of water. Replace is “put something else there”; they overlap but displace stresses the one pushed out. Floods displaced households. Do not use it for moving a mug across a desk.

Meaning

To force people or things out of their usual place.

Examples

• “Floods displaced hundreds of households along the estuary.”
• “The new scheme may displace smaller providers, which is the policy sense.”

Good to know

displace people / a community; displaced by. Physics: displace water. Close but not identical: replace. Humanitarian and housing news. Not a synonym of misplace.

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