Effacement

Full definition of effacement

Noun

1. The act of expunging, of wiping out; expungement.
2. Withdrawal in order to make oneself inconspicuous; the making of oneself inconspicuous.
• 2007, John Zerzan, Silence, page 3:Native Americans seem to have always placed great value on silence and direct experience, and in indigenous cultures in general, silence denotes respect and self-effacement.
3. (medicine) A shortening, or thinning, of the cervix before or during early labour.