annihilate
Americanverb (used with object)
-
to reduce to utter ruin or nonexistence; destroy utterly.
The heavy bombing almost annihilated the city.
-
to destroy the collective existence or main body of; wipe out.
to annihilate an army.
- Synonyms:
- demolish, obliterate, smash
-
to annul; make void.
to annihilate a law.
-
to cancel the effect of; nullify.
-
to defeat completely; vanquish.
Our basketball team annihilated the visiting team.
verb
-
(tr) to destroy completely; extinguish
-
informal (tr) to defeat totally, as in debate or argument
-
(intr) physics to undergo annihilation
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
-
annihilatornoun
-
annihilableadjective
-
annihilativeadjective
-
annihilatoryadjective
-
unannihilatedadjective
-
unannihilativeadjective
-
unannihilatoryadjective
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
annihilatesimple
-
annihilatessimple
-
have annihilatedperfect
-
has annihilatedperfect
-
am annihilatingprogressive
-
are annihilatingprogressive
-
is annihilatingprogressive
-
have been annihilatingperfect progressive
-
has been annihilatingperfect progressive
Past
-
annihilatedsimple
-
had annihilatedperfect
-
was annihilatingprogressive
-
were annihilatingprogressive
-
had been annihilatingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of annihilate
First recorded in 1350–1400; Middle English adnichilat(e) “destroyed,” from Late Latin annihilātus “brought to nothing,” past participle of annihilāre “to bring to nothing,” from Latin an- an- 2 + nihil “nothing” + -āre, infinitive suffix
Explanation
Killing ends when the thing you are killing (your sworn enemy, all hope, a pesky mosquito) is dead. Annihilate goes farther—when you annihilate something, you wipe all trace of it from the earth. You kill a person, but you annihilate a tribe, a town, or even a species. It's nice to think that the human race made it all the way up until the 16th century before annihilate came to mean what it does now. Might this have something to do with the increasing use of gunpowder around this time?
Vocabulary lists containing annihilate
100 SAT Words Beginning with "A"
Looking to grow your vocabulary? Check out this interactive, curated word list from our team of English language specialists at Vocabulary.com – one of over 17,000 lists we've built to help learners worldwide!
Night
Interested in learning more words like this one? Our team at Vocabulary.com has got you covered! You can review flashcards, quiz yourself, practice spelling, and more – and it's all completely free to use!
Super Bowl Blowout: Epic Vocab for the Big Game
Want to remember this word for good? Start your learning journey today with our library of interactive, themed word lists built by the experts at Vocabulary.com – we'll help you make the most of your study time!
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Annihilate, as a philosophical term, signifies to put absolutely out of existence.
From English Synonyms and Antonyms With Notes on the Correct Use of Prepositions by Fernald, James Champlin
Annihilate this,—as in the French Revolution was attempted,—and society is at once reduced to its bare immediate force, and must scratch the soil with its fingers.
From The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 07, No. 43, May, 1861 Creator by Various
Annihilate is the word: the Bumble-bees whom I draw from the fatal hole are a sufficient proof.
From The Life of the Spider by Teixeira de Mattos, Alexander
Annihilate both Time and Space To make two lovers happy.’”
From For Fortune and Glory A Story of the Soudan War by Paget, Walter
Annihilate, an-nī′hil-āt, v.t. to reduce to nothing: to put out of existence: to render null and void, to abrogate.—ns.
From Chambers's Twentieth Century Dictionary (part 1 of 4: A-D) by Various
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
