annihilation

American  

[uh-nahy-uh-ley-shuhn] / əˌnaɪ əˈleɪ ʃən /

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.

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Etymology

Origin of annihilation

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

Example Sentences

Gauff summoned a ball kid and asked for three racquets to be restrung, and left the court for a toilet break after the first set annihilation.

From Barron's

“This move is unprecedented in the history of the Chinese military and represents the total annihilation of the high command,” said Christopher Johnson, head of China Strategies Group, a political-risk consulting firm.

From The Wall Street Journal

Aside from the ongoing menace of nuclear annihilation, the biggest threat we’ve faced as a country was 9/11 when the country’s mainland was attacked by al-Qaeda.

From Salon

In his loopy 1957 essay on hipsters, Norman Mailer talked about the “psychic havoc” of living under the threat of nuclear annihilation.

From The Wall Street Journal

Using new data from the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope, Professor Tomonori Totani of the University of Tokyo now believes he has identified the predicted gamma ray signal associated with dark matter particle annihilation.

From Science Daily

Related Words

• decimation
• demolition
• destruction
• elimination
• eradication
• extermination
• extinction
• liquidation