extermination

English

Etymology

Borrowed from Middle French extermination, itself a learned borrowing from Ecclesiastical Latin exterminātiō.

Pronunciation

• Rhymes: -eɪʃən

• Audio (US):

  (file)

Noun

extermination (countable and uncountable, plural exterminations)

1. The act of exterminating; total destruction or eradication.

   extermination of error or vice

   extermination of weeds from a field

   Depending on the case, extermination of a group of people may constitute genocide or crime against humanity.

   • 1941 January, C. Hamilton Ellis, “The Scottish Station”, in Railway Magazine, page 3:

     Caley locomotive types, especially such numerous things as McIntosh goods and tank engines, have defied extermination over a good many years now.

2. Elimination.

Synonyms

• (total destruction): excision

Derived terms

• extermination camp

Translations

the act of exterminating

• Arabic: إبادة f (ʔibāda)
• Armenian: ոչնչացում (hy) (očʻnčʻacʻum)
• Danish: udrydning c
• French: extermination (fr) f
• German: Ausrottung (de) f, Vernichtung (de) f
• Hebrew: השמדה f
• Italian: sterminazione f, sterminio (it) m
• Ladino: eksterminasion, eksterminio
• Polish: eksterminacja (pl) f
• Portuguese: exterminação f, extermínio (pt) m
• Romanian: exterminare (ro) f, exterminațiune (ro) f
• Russian: уничтоже́ние (ru) (uničtožénije), истребле́ние (ru) (istreblénije)
• Spanish: exterminio m, exterminación f, erradicación f

French

Etymology

Learned borrowing from Ecclesiastical Latin exterminātiōnem. By surface analysis, exterminer +‎ -ation.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ɛk.stɛʁ.mi.na.sjɔ̃/

• Audio:

  (file)

Noun

extermination f (plural exterminations)

1. extermination

Derived terms

• camp d’extermination

Further reading

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