annihilation
noun/əˌnaɪ.əˈleɪ.ʃən/
Etymology From Middle French annihilation, from Latin annihilātiō. By surface analysis, annihilate + -ion.
1
The act of destroying or otherwise turning into nothing, or nonexistence.
2
The act of destroying the form or combination of parts under which a thing exists, so that the name can no longer be applied to it.
- the annihilation of a corporation
3
The state of being annihilated.
- If you ask how religion thus falls on the thorns and faces death, and in the very act annuls annihilation, I cannot explain the matter, for it is religion's secret, and to understand it you must yourself have been a religious man of the extremer type.1902, William James, “Lecture 2”, in The Varieties of Religious Experience: A Study in Human Nature […] , New York, N.Y.; London: Longmans, Green, and Co. […], →OCLC:
4
Natural sciences, Physical sciences, Physics The process of a particle and its corresponding antiparticle combining to produce energy.
- Synonyms
- extinction, eradication
- Antonyms
- creation, generation
- Derived terms
- annihilationism, annihilationist, coannihilation, family annihilation, reannihilation, self-annihilation
- Related terms
- annihilable, annihilate, annihilative, annihilator, annihilatory