annihilation

See also: Annihilation

English

Etymology

From (deprecated template usage) [etyl] Middle French annihilation, from (deprecated template usage) [etyl] Latin ad (“to”) + nihil (“nothing”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /əˌnaɪ.əˈleɪ.ʃən/
• Rhymes: -eɪʃən
• Hyphenation: an‧ni‧hi‧la‧tion

Noun

annihilation (countable and uncountable, plural annihilations)

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.
   • 1902, William James, The Varieties of Religious Experience, Lecture 2:

     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.

4. (physics) The process of a particle and its corresponding antiparticle combining to produce energy.

Synonyms

• (act of reducing to nothing): extinction, eradication
• (state of being annihilated): extinction

Antonyms

• (act of reducing to nothing): creation, generation
• (state of being annihilated): generation

Related terms

• annihilate
• annihilator

• annihilable
• annihilative

Translations

act of reducing to nothing

• Armenian: ոչնչացում (hy) (očʻnčʻacʻum)
• Bulgarian: унищожение (bg) (uništoženie), изтребване (bg) (iztrebvane)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 毁灭 (zh) (huǐmiè)

• Finnish: tuhoaminen (fi), hävittäminen (fi)
• French: annihilation (fr)
• German: Vernichtung (de) f, Zerstörung (de) f
• Ido: nihiligo (io)
• Interlingue:
• Italian: annientamento m, annichilazione (it) f, annichilimento (it) m
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Japanese: 根絶 (ja) (konzetsu), 殲滅 (ja) (semmetsu)
• Kurdish:

  Sorani: ,

• Maori: korehāhā
• Persian: نابودی (fa) (nābūdī)
• Portuguese: aniquilação (pt) f
• Russian: уничтоже́ние (ru) n (uničtožénije), истребле́ние (ru) n (istreblénije), разруше́ние (ru) n (razrušénije)
• Serbo-Croatian: anihilacija (sh) f
• Spanish: aniquilación (es) f
• Swedish: utplåning c, förintelse (sv) c, utplånande (sv) n

state of being annihilated

• Finnish: tuhoutuminen
• Interlingue:
• Italian: annientamento m, annichilazione (it) f, annichilimento (it) m
• Japanese: 全滅 (ja) (zemmetsu), 絶滅 (ja) (zetsumetsu)
• Kurdish:

  Sorani:

• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Maori: korehāhā, whakamōtītanga
• Portuguese: aniquilação (pt) f
• Serbo-Croatian: anihilacija (sh) f
• Spanish: aniquilación (es) f

process of a particle and its corresponding antiparticle combining to produce energy

• Bulgarian: анихилация (anihilacija)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 湮灭 (zh) (yānmiè)

• Czech: anihilace f
• Finnish: annihilaatio
• German: Annihilation (de) f
• Ido: nihiligo (io)
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Italian: annientamento m, annichilazione (it) f, annichilimento (it) m
• Malay: pemusnahhabisan
• Portuguese: aniquilação (pt) f
• Russian: аннигиля́ция (ru) f (annigiljácija)
• Serbo-Croatian: anihilacija (sh) f
• Spanish: aniquilación (es) f

Further reading

• “annihilation”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• “annihilation”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC.
• “annihilation”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.

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French

Etymology

annihiler +‎ -ation

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /a.ni.i.la.sjɔ̃/

• Audio:

  (file)

Noun

annihilation f (plural annihilations)

1. annihilation

References

• “annihilation”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.