ablation.

1. The removal of material from a surface by a process such as intense heating, evaporation, or erosion.

2. The removal or targeted destruction of bodily tissue in a medical procedure.

Use it for

Words that belong together

• laser ablation
• heat-shield ablation

On the page

Heat-shield ablation protected the structure during descent.

Laser ablation removed a thin layer from the sample.

Usage notes

Primary category: sci-fi. Forms: Singular ablation; plural ablations. Legacy lexical fields mirror sense 1 only. Use numbered sense fields for all meanings.