displacement

Pronunciation: dis-plās′ment

Definition:

1. Removal from the normal location or position.
2. The adding to a fluid (particularly a gas) in an open vessel to one of greater density whereby the first is expelled.
3. In chemistry, a change in which one element, radical, or molecule is replaced by another, or in which one element exchanges electric charges with another by reduction or oxidation.
4. In psychoanalysis, the unconscious transfer of strong affective energy or emotion, from the significant object to a neutral one.

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