termination
Americannoun
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terminations
plural
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the act of terminating
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the fact of being terminated.
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the place or part where anything terminates; bound or limit.
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an end or extremity; close or conclusion.
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an issue or result.
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Grammar. a suffix or ending.
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an ending of employment with a specific employer.
noun
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the act of terminating or the state of being terminated
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something that terminates
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a final result
Usage
What does termination mean? Termination is the act of bringing something to an end or the physical end of something. Termination is the noun form of the verb terminate, meaning to bring an end to. It also means to fire someone from a job, and termination is perhaps most commonly used as a way to refer to this process or its result, as in His employment with the company ended in termination. Example: The termination of the program last year hurt the many people who relied on its benefits.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of termination
1400–50; late Middle English terminacion < Latin terminātiōn- (stem of terminātiō ) decision. See terminate, -ion
Explanation
Whether it refers to getting fired from a job, a contract running out, or the assassination of a deep-cover spy, termination is "the end of the line." You may be familiar with a certain time-traveling cyborg assassin, played by Arnold Schwarzenegger. His character was a "terminator," in a movie of the same name, and his goal was the termination of Sarah Connor. Lucky for Sarah, and the supposed future of our planet, the termination was unsuccessful. In the real world, you're more likely to see the word termination used when a contract, program, or job comes to an end, unexpectedly or as planned.
Vocabulary lists containing termination
"The Cask of Amontillado"
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100 SAT Words Beginning with "T"
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Lincoln Inaugural Address (March 1861)
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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:
West asserts that Gilkar and Ahmed pressured her to terminate the pregnancy; Gilkar and Ahmed assert that West initially agreed that termination would be best and even made an appointment before changing her mind.
From Slate ● Aug. 20, 2026
In his separation agreement, Kubasik didn’t admit he violated policy or that there was a cause for termination.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 19, 2026
That is on top of 17 others who left last year as a result of the looming termination.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 17, 2026
Among its specific findings was that 108 of the 264 leases identified by Doge for termination were already in the process of ending before the body was established.
From BBC ● Aug. 6, 2026
The sealed window soothed her with its sturdy termination, its unassailable finality.
From "Sula" by Toni Morrison
The merit board alone reported 20,335 pending appeals that year, four times its usual load, filed by workers swept out in the mass terminations, and with Harris gone it could decide none of them.
From Slate ● Jun. 30, 2026
The terminations took effect in the fall, with those who had work authorizations until October 2026 permitted to keep them.
From Salon ● Apr. 30, 2026
But Federal Register notices announcing the terminations said country conditions had sufficiently improved.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 28, 2026
"By combining theory with our experimental ability to precisely control surface terminations, we open a new path toward MXenes with improved stability and tailored functional properties," concludes Ghorbani-Asl.
From Science Daily ● Apr. 4, 2026
The "–cene" terminations were thus something of a compromise.
From "A Short History of Nearly Everything" by Bill Bryson
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.
