drop-synonym-transact-sql.md

title	DROP SYNONYM (Transact-SQL)
description	DROP SYNONYM (Transact-SQL)
author	WilliamDAssafMSFT
ms.author	wiassaf
ms.date	07/26/2017
ms.service	sql
ms.subservice	t-sql
ms.topic	reference
ms.custom	ignite-2025
f1_keywords	DROP SYNONYM DROP_SYNONYM_TSQL
helpviewer_keywords	deleting synonyms synonyms [SQL Server], removing removing synonyms DROP SYNONYM statement dropping synonyms
dev_langs	TSQL

DROP SYNONYM (Transact-SQL)

[!INCLUDE SQL Server Azure SQL Database Azure SQL Managed Instance FabricSQLDB]

Removes a synonym from a specified schema.

:::image type="icon" source="../../includes/media/topic-link-icon.svg" border="false"::: Transact-SQL syntax conventions

Syntax

DROP SYNONYM [ IF EXISTS ] [ schema. ] synonym_name  

Arguments

IF EXISTS
Applies to: [!INCLUDEssNoVersion] ( [!INCLUDEsssql16-md] through current version).

Conditionally drops the synonym only if it already exists.

schema
Specifies the schema in which the synonym exists. If schema is not specified, [!INCLUDEssNoVersion] uses the default schema of the current user.

synonym_name
Is the name of the synonym to be dropped.

Remarks

References to synonyms are not schema-bound; therefore, you can drop a synonym at any time. References to dropped synonyms will be found only at run time.

Synonyms can be created, dropped and referenced in dynamic SQL.

Permissions

To drop a synonym, a user must satisfy at least one of the following conditions. The user must be:

• The current owner of a synonym.

• A grantee holding CONTROL on a synonym.

• A grantee holding ALTER SCHEMA permission on the containing schema.

Examples

The following example first creates a synonym, MyProduct, and then drops the synonym.

USE tempdb;  
GO  
-- Create a synonym for the Product table in AdventureWorks2022.  
CREATE SYNONYM MyProduct  
FOR AdventureWorks2022.Production.Product;  
GO  
-- Drop synonym MyProduct.  
USE tempdb;  
GO  
DROP SYNONYM MyProduct;  
GO  

See Also

CREATE SYNONYM (Transact-SQL)
EVENTDATA (Transact-SQL)