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

A tangle of light above a black silhouette of a palm tree emits a sulfurous glow, its nauseous beauty balanced on the tip of potential annihilation.

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That annihilation was followed by games against Celtic and Hearts, currently the top two in the league, and for those Martin changed his system for the first time in his entire managerial career.

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In a 2022 episode of the podcast “Your Weirdest Fears,” Northwestern University professor David Tolchinsky peeled the transgressive nature of eyeball horror down to a basic dread of annihilation.

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On Monday, Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz had warned Hamas leaders living abroad that they faced "annihilation" and Gaza would be destroyed if the group did not release its hostages and lay down its arms.

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Then there’s the matter of the “Today Show” interview, which was conducted by Matt Lauer just years before his own cultural annihilation.

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Related Words

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