destruction
Americannoun
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destructions
plural
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the act of destroying.
wanton destruction of a town.
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the condition of being destroyed; demolition; annihilation.
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a cause or means of destroying.
noun
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the act of destroying or state of being destroyed; demolition
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a cause of ruin or means of destroying
Synonym Usage
See ruin.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of destruction
First recorded in 1275–1325; Middle English (from Anglo-French ), from Latin dēstructiōn- (stem of dēstructiō ), equivalent to dēstruct(us) (past participle of dēstruere; see destroy) + -iōn- -ion
Explanation
Destruction is damage so bad, things must be replaced, not fixed. Tornadoes often leave a trail of destruction, damaging neighborhoods and knocking down houses. The Latin word destructionem, "a pulling down," is the root of destruction. When destruction strikes, things do get pulled down — from houses in the case of natural disasters or a big display of canned soups in the case of a careless shopper. Sometimes, destruction refers to death, as when critics of war talk about the resulting destruction of human life.
Vocabulary lists containing destruction
Biodiversity and Humans - Middle School and High School
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Biodiversity and Humans - Introductory
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"Fire and Ice"
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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.
See Examples For:
Nepal was overwhelmed by the sheer scale of destruction from the tsunami-like wall of freezing water and debris triggered by a glacial and rock collapse on the Nepal-China border on August 26.
From Barron's ● Oct. 2, 2026
Muse’s launch also coincided almost exactly with a sharp rise in public debate about the potential for powerful AI to cause mass destruction.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 2, 2026
He shared videos and photos of the destruction to his Instagram page.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 2, 2026
The BBC World Service has been filming across the summer in Gaza to reveal how children there are coping amid the near-total destruction of the infrastructure they rely on to survive.
From BBC ● Sep. 30, 2026
Many wrestled with regret over having used the laws of physics, which they revered, to devise a weapon of mass destruction.
From "Fallout: Spies, Superbombs, and the Ultimate Cold War Showdown" by Steve Sheinkin
Renewed tensions in the Middle East since July and destructions of refining capacity in Russia have raised energy costs again, in particular gas prices, leading to higher inflation and central-bank rate-rise expectations.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 2, 2026
As Perry noted, pesticides are not alone in targeting sperm for destructions.
From Salon ● Nov. 16, 2023
Podolyak added that the barrage was “an undeniable manifestation” of Russia’s “terrorist activity, legally documented by numerous destructions and victims.”
From Washington Times ● Aug. 15, 2023
The story under that headline reported that Bankman-Fried’s entire fortune had been “wiped out” in “one of history’s greatest-ever destructions of wealth.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 14, 2022
The frequent destructions of life by earthquakes and volcanoes, imply, rather, that it would have been better had the Earth been created with a low internal temperature.
From Essays: Scientific, Political, & Speculative, Vol. I by Herbert Spencer
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.
