self-annihilation

American  

[self-uh-nahy-uh-ley-shuhn, self-] / ˈsɛlf əˌnaɪ əˈleɪ ʃən, ˌsɛlf- /

noun

1. self-destruction; suicide.

2. surrender, abnegation, or immolation of the self in mystic contemplation of or union with God.

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self-annihilation British  

noun

1. the surrender of the self in mystical contemplation, union with God, etc

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Etymology

Origin of self-annihilation

First recorded in 1640–50

Example Sentences

In 2025 they discovered that the existential crisis it described wasn’t after all as big as any of the ones they face from military, industrial collapse, demographic self-annihilation and industrial decay.

From The Wall Street Journal • Dec. 15, 2025

It’s a quintessential Joan Didion image: She imagines the day after the human race is gone, capturing both apocalyptic self-annihilation and wonder at the tremendous efforts we make to do something meaningful with our time.

From Los Angeles Times • Dec. 4, 2025

Aronofsky and Hunter leave little to the imagination, emphasizing at every graphic turn that, for Charlie, food isn’t the stuff of life-giving nourishment, but a vector for compulsion and self-annihilation.

From Washington Post • Dec. 20, 2022

In the end, exhausted by the moral confusion and internal contradictions, these crisis cults yearn for self-annihilation.

From Salon • Nov. 1, 2020

When trade is brisk, and England is successfully competing in the foreign markets, the books that enjoin silence and self-annihilation have a wonderful popularity in the manufacturing districts.

From Critical Miscellanies, Vol. I Essay 2: Carlyle by Morley, John