elimination
Americannoun
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the act of eliminating.
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the state of being eliminated.
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Mathematics. the process of solving a system of simultaneous equations by using various techniques to remove the variables successively.
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Sports. a game, bout, or match in a tournament in which an individual or team is eliminated from the competition after one defeat.
noun
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the act of eliminating or the state of being eliminated
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logic (qualified by the name of an operation) a syntactic rule specifying the conditions under which a formula or statement containing the specified operation may permit the derivation of others that do not contain it
conjunction-elimination
universal elimination
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chem a type of chemical reaction involving the loss of a simple molecule, such as water or carbon dioxide
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of elimination
Explanation
Elimination is the process of getting rid of something, whether it’s waste, errors, or the competition. Elimination comes from the Latin word limen, which means threshold. The Romans added an “e” to the beginning and created the verb eliminare, which means to banish or to push over the threshold and out the door. If you solve a multiple-choice question on a test using the process of elimination, you rule out the wrong possibilities one by one until you find the right answer.
Vocabulary lists containing elimination
John F. Kennedy's Address to the American People on the Cuban Missile Crisis (1962)
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On Your Mark, Get Set, Commence Your Life!
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"Amigo Brothers" and "Lean on Me"
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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.
The woman said she underwent an exam with a nurse, which led to a complaint under the Prison Rape Elimination Act, or PREA, a federal law that requires mandatory reporting of alleged sexual abuse.
From Los Angeles Times • Jan. 13, 2026
The Windfall Elimination Provision might have meant otherwise for you, but it no longer applies since the Social Security Fairness Act was signed into law in January.
From MarketWatch • Dec. 4, 2025
It added in a statement to mark World Cervical Cancer Elimination Day that "an estimated 1.4 million future deaths" had been prevented.
From Barron's • Nov. 15, 2025
“You can get a contaminated surface even though there’s no obvious blood,” says Dr. John Ward, director of the Coalition for Global Hepatitis Elimination and an adjunct professor at Emory University.
From The Wall Street Journal • Oct. 3, 2025
“Poor Lord Fredrick! The Howling Elimination Program will have to wait awhile longer,” she thought.
From "The Interrupted Tale" by Maryrose Wood
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.
