Definition
To erode is to wear away grain by grain. Rivers erode canyons and waves erode coastlines; in the word's busy figurative life, inflation erodes savings, scandals erode trust, and small compromises erode principles. The Latin root rodere means 'to gnaw' — the rodent shares it — and the image is exact: damage with teeth too small to see. No single encounter changes anything measurable. The loss appears only when you compare what stands today with what stood before.
Examples
- Centuries of wind and rain have eroded the cliff face into strange pillars.
- Years of broken promises eroded public trust in the institution.
- Inflation quietly erodes the value of money left sitting in an account.
Synonyms
wear away · corrode · undermine · eat away at · weather
In TOEFL & IELTS
Doubly useful: TOEFL geology and ecology passages use the literal sense — soil and coastal erosion are classic topics — while IELTS Writing Task 2 thrives on the figurative one: 'erode trust/confidence/rights' upgrades any paragraph about gradual decline. The noun is 'erosion'. Things can erode on their own or be eroded by an agent; keep 'soil erosion' and 'coastal erosion' as ready-made collocations.