This word comes straight from Latin. In the Roman empire, a terminus was a boundary stone, and all boundary stones had a minor god associated with them, whose name was Terminus. Terminus was a kind of keeper of the peace, since wherever there was a terminus there could be no arguments about where your property ended and your neighbor's property began. So Terminus even had his own festival, the Terminalia, when images of the god were draped with flower garlands. Today the word shows up in all kinds of places, including in the name of numerous hotels worldwide built near a city's railway terminus.
Examples of terminus in a Sentence
Stockholm is the terminus for the southbound train.
Geologists took samples from the terminus of the glacier.
the terminus of the DNA strand
Recent Examples on the WebNew Jersey chose me: I was born there and grew up on the Jersey Shore, just past the southern terminus of the Pine Barrens, where this story is set.—Cressida Leyshon, The New Yorker, 13 Oct. 2024 Tara Dower, a 31-year-old ultrarunner and long-distance hiker born in North Carolina and based in Virginia, reached Georgia’s Springer Mountain, the southern terminus of the Appalachian Trail, at 11:53 P.M.—Grayson Haver Currin, Outside Online, 22 Sep. 2024 Location Though its name claims Orchard Road, the Conrad sits just off Singapore’s glossy commercial drag, near its western terminus.—Adam Erace, Travel + Leisure, 17 Sep. 2024 Finally, the route goes into Illinois, stopping at seven downstate stations before pulling into its northern terminus, Chicago Union Station.—Rachel Chang, Travel + Leisure, 5 Oct. 2024 See all Example Sentences for terminus
These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'terminus.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.
Word History
Etymology
Latin, boundary marker, limit — more at term entry 1
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