annihilation

[uh-nahy-uh-ley-shuhn]

noun

1. an act or instance of annihilating, or of completely destroying or defeating someone or something.

   the brutal annihilation of millions of people.

2. the state of being annihilated; total destruction; extinction.

   fear of nuclear annihilation.

3. Physics.

   1. Also called pair annihilation. the process in which a particle and antiparticle unite, annihilate each other, and produce one or more photons.

   2. the conversion of rest mass into energy in the form of electromagnetic radiation.

Word History and Origins

Origin of annihilation¹

First recorded in 1630–40; from French or directly from Late Latin annihilātiōn- (stem of annihilātiō ); annihilate, -ion

Example Sentences

These are post-hope works, in other words, absorbed by death and annihilation.

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All the man wanted to do was play golf and save humanity from nuclear annihilation.

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The annihilation of George Armstrong Custer and the larger part of his Seventh Cavalry steeled the U.S.

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“Our audience lives in a world in which God has been banished. They live in daily fear of nuclear annihilation,” the director remarks.

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But the threat of annihilation has done nothing to slow them in their teenage rituals.

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Related Words

• decimation 
• demolition 
• destruction 
• elimination 
• eradication 
• extermination www.thesaurus.com
• extinction 
• liquidation