ademption

In English law, the revocation or taking away of a grant or legacy. Thus if a testator leaves a specific article or property in his or her will, and before his or her death death the nature of the article or property bequeathed is entirely changed or destroyed, the legatee gets nothing and is said to suffer from ademption.

The word is also used in the legal sense of ‘satisfaction’; for example, if a testator owing money makes a creditor a beneficiary under his will to the same amount as the debt, or more, then the legacy is held to have extinguished the debt.