displacement

Etymology

From French déplacement. Morphologically displace + -ment.

noun

1. The act of displacing, or the state of being displaced; a putting out of place.
   Unnecessary displacement of funds. 1793, Alexander Hamilton, Loans[…]
   The displacement of the sun by parallax. 1837, William Whewell, History of the Inductive Sciences
2. The weight of a ship or other floating vessel, traditionally measured or calculated by finding the volume of the vessel below the waterline when afloat, the weight of the displaced liquid being equal to that of the whole displacing body.
3. (chemistry) The process of extracting soluble substances from organic material and the like, whereby a quantity of saturated solvent is displaced, or removed, for another quantity of the solvent.
4. (fencing) Moving the target to avoid an attack; dodging.
5. (physics) A vector quantity which denotes distance with a directional component.
6. (grammar) The capability of a communication system to refer to things that are not present (that existed or will exist at another time, or that exist at another location).