annihilate
pronunciation
How to pronounce annihilate in British English:
UK [əˈnaɪəleɪt]
How to pronounce annihilate in American English:
US [əˈnaɪəˌlet]
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- Verb:
- kill in large numbers
Word Origin
- annihilate
- annihilate: [16] Annihilate comes from the past participle of the late Latin verb annihilāre, meaning literally ‘reduce to nothing’ (a formation based on the noun nihil ‘nothing’, source of English nihilism and nil). There was actually an earlier English verb, annihil, based on French annihiler, which appeared at the end of the 15th century, but it did not long survive the introduction of annihilate.=> nihilism, nil
- annihilate (v.)
- 1520s, from an obsolete adjective meaning "reduced to nothing" (late 14c.), originally the past participle of a verb, anihil, from Old French annichiler (14c.), from Late Latin annihilare "to reduce to nothing," from Latin ad- "to" (see ad-) + nihil "nothing" (see nil). Related: Annihilated; annihilating.
Example
- 1. Bring the two together and they annihilate each other in a flash of energy .
- 2. When the fragile dust grains collide , they can annihilate each other , he said .
- 3. When particles and anti-particles collide , they annihilate each other in a small flash of energy .
- 4. Famously , however , matter and antimatter annihilate on contact and disappear in a puff of pure energy .
- 5. After running their simulation on a supercomputer , they found that dark matter should annihilate much more readily than had previously been thought .