eliminate
Americanverb (used with object)
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eliminates,
present (3rd person singular)
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eliminated,
past participle, past
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eliminating
present participle
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to remove or get rid of, especially as being in some way undesirable.
to eliminate risks; to eliminate hunger.
- Synonyms:
- annihilate, exterminate, erase, eradicate, abolish, banish
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to omit, especially as being unimportant or irrelevant; leave out.
I have eliminated all statistical tables, which are of interest only to the specialist.
- Antonyms:
- incorporate, admit, accept, include
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to remove from further consideration or competition, especially by defeating in a contest.
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to eradicate or kill.
to eliminate the enemy.
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Physiology. to void or expel from an organism.
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Mathematics. to remove (a quantity) from an equation by elimination.
verb
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to remove or take out; get rid of
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to reject as trivial or irrelevant; omit from consideration
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to remove (a competitor, team, etc) from a contest, usually by defeat
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slang to murder in a cold-blooded manner
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physiol to expel (waste matter) from the body
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maths to remove (an unknown variable) from two or more simultaneous equations
Usage
Eliminate is sometimes wrongly used to talk about avoiding the repetition of something undesirable: we must prevent (not eliminate ) further mistakes of this kind
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
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eliminabilitynoun
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eliminantnoun
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eliminatornoun
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preeliminateverb (used with object)
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eliminableadjective
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eliminativeadjective
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noneliminativeadjective
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uneliminatedadjective
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well-eliminatedadjective
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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eliminatesimple
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eliminatessimple
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have eliminatedperfect
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has eliminatedperfect
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am eliminatingprogressive
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are eliminatingprogressive
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is eliminatingprogressive
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have been eliminatingperfect progressive
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has been eliminatingperfect progressive
Past
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eliminatedsimple
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had eliminatedperfect
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was eliminatingprogressive
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were eliminatingprogressive
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had been eliminatingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of eliminate
First recorded in 1560–70 and in 1915–20 eliminate for def. 4; from Latin ēlīminātus “turned out of doors” (past participle of ēlīmināre ), equivalent to ē- “from, out of” + līmin-, stem of līmen “threshold” + -ātus adjective suffix; see e- 1, -ate 1
Explanation
As eliminate means "get rid of or do away with," it has become used to refer to the end of a problem or even an entire species. We need to eliminate sources of pollution in order to maintain a healthy world. The original literal meaning of eliminate was "to thrust over the threshold and out of doors, to kick out," but the 18th century saw the word expand to mean "to exclude," and later to ridding the body of waste. The verb then came to refer to getting rid of anything, such as a problem or foul odor. The word took an ominous turn in the 20th century, when we saw man-made pollution eliminate whole species, and war, hate, and famine nearly eliminate whole groups of people.
Vocabulary lists containing eliminate
Vocabulary from the Introduction to "Reality is Broken" by Jane McGonigal
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"The Civil Rights Movement"
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Words to Know Before You Defrost the Bird
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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:
The results do not suggest that people with IBD should eliminate plant foods from their diets.
From Science Daily ● Sep. 13, 2026
To eliminate “tail risk,” the catastrophic exposure of an uncapped medical emergency, use coverage that falls under ACA’s consumer protections, as outlined in Healthcare.gov’s guide to what ACA plans cover.
From MarketWatch ● Sep. 12, 2026
Clear rules and clear norms won’t eliminate every conflict over AI.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 11, 2026
The path through Eagle Rock would run along what is now a median and eliminate one car lane to create a dedicated bus lane.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 9, 2026
The object of selective spraying is not to produce grass on roadsides and rights-of-way but to eliminate the tall woody plants by direct treatment and to preserve all other vegetation.
From "Silent Spring" by Rachel Carson
A sausage-and-pepper meal starter eliminates most of the chopping; canned tomatoes provide the sauce’s backbone; and a few spoonfuls of prepared sun-dried tomato pesto pull everything into focus.
From Salon ● Aug. 25, 2026
The company ranks suppliers by their flexibility and ability to deliver urgent orders, and regularly eliminates the poorest performers, according to a 2021 Zhongtai Securities report.
From Barron's ● Aug. 24, 2026
The deal eliminates "some of the irritants" that the US has had with Canada, he added.
From BBC ● Aug. 19, 2026
The proposal may also result in savings as it eliminates Pilgrim’s standalone public company costs, potentially benefiting Pilgrim’s shareholders, JBS said.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 18, 2026
The second is of a kind that is always associated with the shotgun approach to nature: the spraying also eliminates a great many plants that were not its intended target.
From "Silent Spring" by Rachel Carson
The changes eliminated capital-gains taxes on qualified investments—meaning newly issued shares in C corporations with assets of less than $50 million in certain industries.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 11, 2026
Texas once had renewable mandates but eliminated them.
From MarketWatch ● Sep. 10, 2026
Two-time major finalist Karolina Muchova, Ukraine's Elina Svitolina and 2025 US Open runner-up Amanda Anisimova were the first top-10 seeds to be eliminated when they lost in the third round.
From BBC ● Sep. 7, 2026
But five first-round draft choices eliminated for the Clippers, a team that was already acquiring draft picks in an obvious rebuild!
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 5, 2026
“It’s what people do on reality shows like Survivor. We help each other until, you know, everybody else is eliminated and we have to stab each other in the back.”
From "Escape from Mr. Lemoncello's Library" by Chris Grabenstein
Or is it only after someone is dead that we can take a critical look at their life, eliminating the chance to keep the subject part of the conversation?
From Salon ● Sep. 5, 2026
If they inherit the stock at your death, however, the basis generally resets to its market value at that time, potentially eliminating capital-gains tax on all the appreciation that occurred during your lifetime.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 2, 2026
Nearly all footbridges were destroyed, eliminating hiker access to the creek.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 30, 2026
Alex Grinberg, a senior fellow focused on Iran at the Turan Research Center, said the war set back Iran significantly by eliminating infrastructure and people in the nuclear programme and imposing massive economic damage.
From Barron's ● Aug. 25, 2026
He classified the lines he studied into stratifications of importance, always eliminating the not-quite-perfect continuation and seeking what he called the “true move,” that which could not be refuted.
From "Endgame" by Frank Brady
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.
