Definition of annihilation
plural annihilations
1
: the state or fact of being completely destroyed or obliterated : the act of annihilating something or the state of being annihilated
- The late 1940s and '50s were so pervaded by a general fear of nuclear annihilation that the era was known as the Age of Anxiety.
- —Charles Krauthammer
- For a literary culture that fears it is on the brink of total annihilation, we are awfully cavalier about the Great Male Novelists of the last century.
- —Katie Roiphe
- … few experts believe that either regime would risk annihilation by actually launching a nuke in anger.
- —Michael Elliott
- The Cretaceous Extinction, whatever its cause, was one of the two most awesome annihilations of life in the history of the world.
- —John McPhee
2
physics
: the combination of a particle and its antiparticle (such as an electron and a positron) that results in the subsequent total conversion of the particles into energy
- Both the creation and annihilation of antimatter have been observed in nuclear accelerators (atom-smashers).
- —Harding E. Smith
- The annihilation reactions are the most efficient sources of energy known, for in them the entire mass of both particles is converted into pure energy.
- —George Greenstein
