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defenestration

diːˌfɛnəˈstreɪʃənnoun

What does defenestration mean?

Throwing someone out of a window. Also, jokingly, throwing someone out of a job.

Defenestration, six ways

PlainThrowing someone out of a window. Also, jokingly, throwing someone out of a job.
ADHDOut the window. Literally. Sometimes a person.
Gen ZYes, there is a word for yeeting someone out a window. This is it.
MetaphorThe shortest exit in the building, and not the one on the floor plan.
FormalThe action of throwing someone out of a window; informally, a swift removal from office.
Like I’m 5Throwing a person out of a window. That’s defenestration, and it is a real word.

How to pronounce defenestration

dee-fen-uh-STRAY-shun/diːˌfɛnəˈstreɪʃən/

Defenestration in a sentence

The board’s defenestration of the CEO took one afternoon.
The meeting ended in a figurative defenestration.
The Defenestration of Prague in 1618 helped start the Thirty Years’ War.

Synonyms for defenestration

ousterRemoval from office, without the window.
expulsionBeing thrown out, formally.

Where defenestration comes from

Latin. De-, out of, and fenestra, window. Named for the Defenestration of Prague in 1618, when officials were thrown from a castle window, which helped start the Thirty Years’ War.

Good to know

In offices and politics it is used, half joking, for a sudden and public removal from a job: the founder’s defenestration. The literal sense lives mostly in history books.

Defenestration meaning, on a Gloss card: Throwing someone out of a window. Also, jokingly, throwing someone out of a job.

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Defenestration on one card: what it means, how to say it, and a sentence. Keep it, or pin it for later.

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