terminator
Americannoun
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a person or thing that terminates.
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Astronomy. the dividing line between the illuminated and the unilluminated part of a satellite or planet, especially the moon.
noun
Etymology
Origin of terminator
1760–70; < Late Latin terminātor, equivalent to terminā ( re ) to terminate + -tor -tor
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.
One possibility is that the morning terminator experiences extra cooling that current models fail to capture.
From Science Daily • Jun. 11, 2026
Artemis II pilot Victor Glover heard the call of the terminator: the border between the moon’s daytime and nighttime — the lunar dawn.
From Los Angeles Times • Apr. 9, 2026
That frontier between light and darkness is known as the terminator.
From BBC • Apr. 3, 2026
At the highest possible end, a comparable would be Mathieu van der Poel, the Dutch terminator who has won Tour stages, one-day classics like Paris-Roubaix and turns up for races in a Lamborghini.
From The Wall Street Journal • Feb. 16, 2026
“Right. I’ll get right on it. My money is still on Charles Wallace being a terminator, though. Kids creepy.”
From "When Dimple Met Rishi" by Sandhya Menon
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.
