Word Pronunciation & Dictionary

exterminate

/ɪkˈstɝ.mɪ.neɪt/

Word Rarity Rare

Frequency: Zipf frequency 2.91 in modern English

Syllables: ex-ter-mi-nate
IPA: /ɪkˈstɝ.mɪ.neɪt/

20

Scrabble Score

11

Letters

4

Syllables

8

Unique Chars

Meaning

verb

To kill or otherwise permanently eliminate all of (a population, often of pests or undesirables), usually intentionally.

Transitive verb

verb

To bring a definite end to; to finish completely.

Transitive verb

Example Sentences

"We'll use poison to exterminate the rats."
"The natives everywhere eat their [sc. cuscuses] flesh, and as their motions are so slow, easily catch them by climbing; so that it is wonderful they have not been exterminated. It may be, however, that their dense woolly fur protects them from birds of prey, and the islands they live in are too thinly inhabited for man to be able to exterminate them."
"The geth are a humanoid race of networked A.I.s. They were created by the quarians 300 years ago as tools of labor and war. When the geth showed signs of self-evolution, the quarians attempted to exterminate them. The geth won the resulting war. This example has led to legal, systematic repression of artificial intelligences in galactic society."
"Somewhat unsurprisingly, unleashing the most powerful navy on the planet with carte blanche to exterminate slavers on sight saw a dramatic and sudden collapse in slaver numbers in the late 1840s and early 1850s."
"The public school failed to exterminate truancy."

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin exterminātus, perfect passive participle of exterminō (see -ate (verb-forming suffix)), from ex- (“thoroughly”) + terminō (“to finish, close, end”), from terminus (“limit, end”) + -ō (verb-forming suffix).

Regional Pronunciation

American English: /ɪkˈstɝ.mɪ.neɪt/
British English: /ɛkˈstəː.mɪ.neɪt/

Usage

Transitive verb

Inflected Forms

exterminates (present, singular) exterminating (participle, present) exterminated (participle, past) exterminated (past)

Derived Forms

exterminatable extermination exterminative exterminator exterminatory exterminatrix exterminism

Frequently Paired Words

terminate termination terminator

Synonyms

annihilate eradicate extermine uproot stamp out kill off extirpate root out

Rhymes With

terminate germinate determinate

Questions

How do you pronounce exterminate?: The recorded pronunciation is /ɪkˈstɝ.mɪ.neɪt/.
What does exterminate mean?: To kill or otherwise permanently eliminate all of (a population, often of pests or undesirables), usually intentionally.
Where does exterminate come from?: Borrowed from Latin exterminātus, perfect passive participle of exterminō (see -ate (verb-forming suffix)), from ex- (“thoroughly”) + terminō (“to finish, close, end”), from terminus (“limit, end”) + -ō (verb-forming suffix).

How to pronounce exterminate

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