What does expunge mean?
Word: Expunge
Part of Speech: Verb
Meaning: Expunge means to remove something completely, such as a name or a passage, from a list or a piece of writing.
Synonyms: erase, wipe out
How do you spell expunge?
Syllables: ex - punge
Tricky part: The e at the end is silent, and pupils leave it off or swap in a j. Without it the g could not stay soft.
Watch out for: expunj, expung
Memory tip: The final e is the one letter you must never expunge. Keep it, or the g loses its soft sound.
Expunge in a sentence
Example 1: The teacher asked us to expunge every spelling mistake from the final copy.
Example 2: A later editor expunged the weak jokes from the old comic play.
Example 3: The company expunged the old address from all its leaflets.
Fun Fact
The Latin verb behind it meant to mark with dots: a scribe showed that a word was to be dropped by setting small dots against it.
Practise the CREST Way
Word Cookie
One word in this sentence is misspelt. Find it:
The careful librarian promised to exponge the names of retired members from the old register by Friday evening.
a) retired
b) register
c) exponge
d) careful
Show answer
c) exponge. The vowel is the short u of sun, though it can look like the o in sponge.
Mingle-Mangle
Rearrange the letters in the sentence to make the word that fits:
The club will nexupeg all the outdated rules from its handbook next month.
a) expand
b) expunge
c) exclude
d) exchange
Show answer
b) expunge. An x, a p and a g: only one option has all three.
Word Connection
Choose the synonym of the word expunge as used in the sentence:
The author chose to expunge the repeated paragraph from her second draft.
a) insert
b) delete
c) translate
d) highlight
Show answer
b) delete. The paragraph is going, and only one option takes it out.
Spell-o-Spell
One word here is misspelt. Choose the meaning of that word:
1. erradicate 2. expunge 3. obliterate 4. abbreviate
a) to cover something so it can no longer be seen
b) to get rid of something bad for good
c) to shorten a word or a phrase
d) to strike written words off a record
Show answer
b) to get rid of something bad for good. Eradicate has a single r; the other three are correct.
Multiple Choice Questions
1. After the publisher expunged a chapter, what would a reader of the book find?
a) the chapter split into two
b) no trace of that chapter
c) the chapter moved to the front
d) the chapter set in larger print
Show answer
b) no trace of that chapter
2. Which task comes closest to expunging?
a) scrubbing an old entry off a website
b) adding photographs to a website
c) sharing a website with friends
d) making a website run faster
Show answer
a) scrubbing an old entry off a website
