deletion

deletion
    n 1: any process whereby sounds or words are left out of spoken
         words or phrases [syn: {omission}, {deletion}]
    2: (genetics) the loss or absence of one or more nucleotides
       from a chromosome
    3: the omission that is made when an editorial change shortens a
       written passage; "an editor's deletions frequently upset
       young authors"; "both parties agreed on the excision of the
       proposed clause" [syn: {deletion}, {excision}, {cut}]
    4: the act of deleting something written or printed
    

Deletion \De*le"tion\, n. [L. deletio, fr. delere. See
   {Delete}.]
   Act of deleting, blotting out, or erasing; destruction.
   [Obs.] --Jer. Taylor.
   [1913 Webster]

         A total deletion of every person of the opposing party.
                                                  --Sir M. Hale.
   [1913 Webster]
    

22 Moby Thesaurus words for "deletion":
      abbreviation, abridgment, blot, blotting, blotting out,
      blue-penciling, bowdlerization, cancel, cancellation, censoring,
      censorship, editing, effacement, erasure, expunction, expurgation,
      obliteration, omission, scrubbing, striking, washing out,
      wiping out