nullification

/ˌnʌləfəˈkeɪʃən/

Other forms: nullifications

Nullification is the act of cancelling something. Counteracting the effects of a snakebite with an antidote could be described as nullification, for example.

Use the noun nullification when one thing overcomes or overrides another, basically erasing the effects of the first thing. Nullification of a newly passed law would occur if the law turned out to be impossible to enforce. The word is most often used in a political sense, in fact, and was first used this way by Thomas Jefferson in 1798. The Latin root is nullificationem, "a making as nothing," from nullus, "not any."

Definitions of nullification

1. noun

   the act of nullifying; making null and void; counteracting or overriding the effect or force of something
   synonyms: override

   types:

   cancellation

   the act of cancelling; calling off some arrangement

   vitiation

   nullification by the destruction of the legal force; rendering null

   counteraction, neutralisation, neutralization

   action intended to nullify the effects of some previous action

   neutralisation, neutralization

   action intended to keep a country politically neutral or exclude it from a possible war

   abrogation, annulment, repeal

   the act of abrogating; an official or legal cancellation

   write-off

   the act of cancelling from an account a bad debt or a worthless asset

   attainder, civil death

   cancellation of civil rights

   recission, rescission

   (law) the act of rescinding; the cancellation of a contract and the return of the parties to the positions they would have had if the contract had not been made

   type of:

   change of state

   the act of changing something into something different in essential characteristics
2. noun

   the states'-rights doctrine that a state can refuse to recognize or to enforce a federal law passed by the United States Congress
   type of:

   states' rights

   a doctrine that federal powers should be curtailed and returned to the individual states