annihilation
an act or instance of annihilating, or of completely destroying or defeating someone or something: the brutal annihilation of millions of people.
the state of being annihilated; total destruction; extinction: fear of nuclear annihilation.
Physics.
Also called pair annihilation . the process in which a particle and antiparticle unite, annihilate each other, and produce one or more photons.: Compare positronium.
the conversion of rest mass into energy in the form of electromagnetic radiation.
Origin of annihilation
1Words Nearby annihilation
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
How to use annihilation in a sentence
We came close to destroying all life on Earth during the Cold War, with the threat of nuclear annihilation.
AC Feels Great, But It’s Terrible for the Planet. Here’s How to Fix That | Eric Dean Wilson | June 30, 2021 | TimeFourteen spots in the sky gave off the gamma rays expected from matter-antimatter annihilation events.
Stars made of antimatter could lurk in our galaxy | Maria Temming | May 31, 2021 | Science News For StudentsThis type of particle annihilation gives off gamma rays with certain wavelengths.
Stars made of antimatter could lurk in our galaxy | Maria Temming | May 31, 2021 | Science News For StudentsIt’s set chiefly in Des Moines in the 1950s, when America was perfect except for the threat of nuclear annihilation, racial oppression, the birth of unbridled consumerism and little Billy’s mother’s cooking.
The best audiobooks for your summer drive, sorted by length — and who’s in the car | Katherine A. Powers | May 27, 2021 | Washington PostFor North American bats, contracting this new virus carried the risk of absolute annihilation.
Beware Of Humans | Maggie Koerth (maggie.koerth-baker@fivethirtyeight.com) | April 26, 2021 | FiveThirtyEight
Nazi texts proclaimed that the annihilation or expulsion of the Armenians was a “compelling necessity.”
The 20th-Century Dictator Most Idolized by Hitler | William O’Connor | November 24, 2014 | THE DAILY BEASTIt was three or four years of annihilation, and by the end my stomach was in bits.
The consequences of a drug conviction amount to the annihilation of citizenship.
Winters uses that cataclysmic event to examine the slow deterioration of communal life in the face of annihilation.
So she has to be perfect and self-sacrificing to the point of self-annihilation.
The object of these scarli is to manifest the popular exultation at the annihilation of feudal tyranny.
The Pit Town Coronet, Volume I (of 3) | Charles James WillsTo his excited imagination, we time and again escaped complete wreck and annihilation by a mere hair's breadth.
British Highways And Byways From A Motor Car | Thomas D. MurphyIts history was no doubt as stirring as that of others of the border castles, which more fortunately escaped annihilation.
British Highways And Byways From A Motor Car | Thomas D. Murphyannihilation of ones own identity in the moment is possible in natures domainnever in mans.
The Fifth String | John Philip SousaTo wish to separate technique from poetry is a modern folly which will lead to nothing but the annihilation of Art itself.
Charles Baudelaire, His Life | Thophile Gautier
British Dictionary definitions for annihilation
/ (əˌnaɪəˈleɪʃən) /
total destruction
the act of annihilating
physics the destruction of a particle and its antiparticle when they collide. The annihilation of an electron with a positron generates two or, very rarely, three photons of annihilation radiation . The annihilation of a nucleon with its antiparticle generates several pions
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
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