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• terminus
  terminus

  noun

  the end or extremity of anything.
• Terminus
  Terminus

  noun

  the Roman god of boundaries

terminus

American  

[tur-muh-nuhs] / ˈtɜr mə nəs /

noun

termini, plural terminuses plural

1. the end or extremity of anything.

2. either end of a railroad line.

3. British. the station or the town at the end of a railway or bus route.

4. the point toward which anything tends; goal or end.

5. a boundary or limit.

6. a boundary post or stone.

7. (initial capital letter) the ancient Roman god of boundaries and landmarks.

8. term.

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terminus ¹ British  

/ ˈtɜːmɪnəs /

noun

1. the last or final part or point

2. either end of a railway, bus route, etc, or a station or town at such a point

3. a goal aimed for

4. a boundary or boundary marker

5. architect another name for term

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Terminus ² British  

/ ˈtɜːmɪnəs /

noun

1. the Roman god of boundaries

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Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• termini
  plural
• terminuses
  plural

Etymology

Origin of terminus

1545–55; < Latin: boundary, limit, end

Explanation

Consider terminus the end of the line. Whether it describes a train station, a goal, or an era — terminus refers to something’s final point. Ancient Romans worshiped Terminus as the god of boundaries, even performing sacrifices in his honor to bless objects that marked borders. You probably don’t have to go that far if you just want to use the noun terminus. You can use it as a weighty way to indicate something is at the end of the line, such as the last stop on a bus or train route. It most often refers to the end of a transportation route, but it can also be used more generally to mark the end point of other things — such as a marriage or a project.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

terminus Terminus termini terminuses

They are Dover's ferry port, Eurotunnel's Folkestone terminal, and Eurostar's St Pancras rail terminus.

From BBC ● Jun. 24, 2026

According to the study, Hektoria's terminus remained mostly stable after the sudden retreat, though nearby Green Glacier continued to shrink.

From Science Daily ● May 19, 2026

The recently shuttered Clifton’s in downtown Los Angeles sits at 7th and Broadway, the original terminus of Route 66.

From Los Angeles Times ● May 12, 2026

For this reason, it has grown into an important oil-loading and ship fuel-supplying hub and is the terminus for the Abu Dhabi crude oil pipeline.

From Salon ● Mar. 21, 2026

The steel ran south and north presumably, springing from some inconceivable source and shooting toward a miraculous terminus.

From "The Underground Railroad: A Novel" by Colson Whitehead

It isn’t clear what the price/earnings ratio will be for creating a real-life Terminus, which could take decades at best.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 15, 2026

Federal records show that water releases from Terminus Dam at Lake Kaweah and Schafer Dam at Lake Success jumped early Friday morning.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 31, 2025

Photos on social media showed a red double-decker bus that had crashed into a passenger shelter at Terminus Place.

From BBC ● Jan. 29, 2024

In 2019, a footbridge near Mumbai’s historic Chhatrapati Shivaji Railway Terminus building buckled, killing six.

From Washington Post ● Oct. 31, 2022

Apparently this was a sore point for Terminus.

From "The Son of Neptune" by Rick Riordan

As temperatures continue rising around the Antarctic Peninsula, more glaciers are losing their protective ice tongues and becoming tidewater glaciers, meaning their termini rest directly on the seabed.

From Science Daily ● May 19, 2026

Services will be diverted to other London termini, with passengers being urged to checked before they travel.

From BBC ● Dec. 22, 2023

Built as the terminus for the Great Western Railway in 1854, it’s second only to St. Pancras among London termini in terms of heart-lifting delight.

From Washington Post ● Jun. 17, 2022

"Stations in a Loop or Hyperloop system are small in size and widely distributed in a network — very different from large-station termini considered for train systems," the company spokesman said.

From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 18, 2018

Glacier Bay, Alaska showing former positions of termini 1760-1966   6 4.

From Humpback Whales in Glacier Bay National Monument, Alaska by Commerce, United States Department of

A chain-link fence spanned the terminuses of the complex’s four dead-end streets, behind which lay a dense patch of woods.

From Slate ● Sep. 26, 2021

It’s also near the terminuses of both the Cascadia Subduction Zone and the San Andreas Fault.

From Seattle Times ● Dec. 8, 2016

In what should be one of the world's great rail terminuses, the locomotives themselves are hidden further underground.

From BBC ● May 27, 2015

Neither was Julesburg, or Sidney, or Cheyenne, when they was terminuses.

From Desert Dust by Shepherd, J. Clinton

I ha' started from terminuses, and I ha' stopped in 'em, so I knows what I'm telling about.

From A Drake by George! by Trevena, John