defoliation

1. 1.

   the loss of foliage

   Broaderorganic process
2. 2.

   causing the leaves of trees and other plants to fall off (as by the use of chemicals)

   Broaderchange of state

Other forms of defoliation

plural

defoliations·

Forms marked · are formed by the regular rule rather than recorded in the source data. English keeps a few hundred irregulars and the rest follow the pattern, so the rule is right far more often than not — but it is a rule, and the mark says so.

Questions about defoliation

What does defoliation mean?

defoliation means "the loss of foliage". That is the primary sense; the word has 2 in total, listed in full on this page.

How many syllables are in defoliation?

defoliation has 6 syllables: de-fo-li-a-ti-on. The stress falls on "ti".

Is defoliation a common word?

defoliation is banded "Rare" — specialist or archaic — most readers will not have met it. The band comes from how often the word appears in a large corpus of everyday English, not from an editor's impression.