Collins COBUILD Advanced Learner's English Dictionary - disappearance

(disappearances) 1. If you refer to someone’s disappearance, you are referring to the fact that nobody knows where they have gone. Her disappearance has baffled police... N-VAR: oft with poss 2. If you refer to the disappearance of an object, you are referring to the fact that it has been lost or stolen. Police are investigating the disappearance from council offices of confidential files. = loss N-COUNT: usu sing, usu with poss, oft N from n 3. The disappearance of a type of thing, person, or animal is a process in which it becomes less common and finally no longer exists. ...the virtual disappearance of the red telephone box. N-UNCOUNT: usu with supp, oft N of n