annihilating

present participle of annihilate
1
2
as in destroying
to bring to a complete end the physical soundness, existence, or usefulness of the tornado simply annihilated the family's home

Synonyms & Similar Words

Antonyms & Near Antonyms

3

Example Sentences

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Recent Examples of annihilating As an arachnid alien-annihilating action game, Helldivers seems like the perfect recipe for a popcorn flick. Matt Cabral, Entertainment Weekly, 15 July 2026 Chess is about annihilating your opponent. Nick Lichtenberg, Fortune, 24 June 2026 However, this new research showed that these point sources, including pulsars, would be extremely faint, and that is good news for scientists who favor annihilating dark matter as the cause of these gamma rays. Robert Lea, Space.com, 21 June 2026 If Neptune did have an original set of moons that more closely resembled those of its planetary neighbors, the arrival of Triton — which is just smaller than our own moon — would have wreaked havoc, crashing into the other satellites and annihilating some of them. Jacopo Prisco, CNN Money, 20 May 2026 Now southern Republicans are annihilating Black political power. Adam Serwer, The Atlantic, 19 May 2026 Instead, it is filled with a froth of virtual particles becoming real in pairs, waving to us, annihilating each other, and sinking back into the soup of virtual particles. Stephen Clark, ArsTechnica, 15 May 2026 One compelling hypothesis is that dark matter particles in the dense central halo are interacting with and annihilating one another, releasing energy as gamma rays. Paul M. Sutter, Scientific American, 6 May 2026 That means eliminating Iran's Navy, which is now absolutely destroyed, hurting their Air Force and their missile program at levels never seen before, and annihilating their defense industrial base. James Powel, USA Today, 2 Apr. 2026
Recent Examples of Synonyms for annihilating
Verb
  • This is a sector that’s helped solve civilizational challenges like eradicating smallpox and lifting more than a billion people out of extreme poverty.
    Max Simkoff, Fortune, 7 Aug. 2026
  • This new war on poverty seems intent on increasing it, not eradicating it.
    Los Angeles Times, Los Angeles Times, 6 Aug. 2026
Verb
  • The fire ripped through hillside neighborhoods, destroying mansions with spectacular ocean views.
    ABC News, ABC News, 4 Aug. 2026
  • At that tipping point, the only solution is for oil prices to surge, destroying enough demand for oil that the market can return to equilibrium.
    David Goldman, CNN Money, 3 Aug. 2026
Verb
  • The release came as Ariana dropped her eighth studio album Petal, which explores themes of overcoming negativity and personal growth, on Friday, July 31.
    Becca Longmire, PEOPLE, 4 Aug. 2026
  • Instead of overcoming their fatal flaw and defeating their shadow-self, the titular Eternals are reckoning with their relationship to God and the grand arc of human history.
    EW Staff, Entertainment Weekly, 3 Aug. 2026
Verb
  • Reading scores of New York City public school students plummeted this past school year, erasing improvements in the subject recorded a year before, sparking calls from the teachers’ union for a change in approach.
    Cayla Bamberger, New York Daily News, 7 Aug. 2026
  • The record-setting Warriors were only a few months removed from erasing a 3-1 series deficit to eliminate Durant’s Thunder in the Western Conference finals.
    Devon Henderson, New York Times, 2 Aug. 2026
Verb
  • Despite being identified decades ago, the exact trigger of the joint-demolishing condition is still unclear.
    Beth Mole, ArsTechnica, 31 July 2026
  • At least one person was arrested for trespassing in connection with an earlier protest to stop contractors from demolishing the other trees.
    Michael Loria, USA Today, 30 July 2026
Verb
  • In Bosnia, people are still identifying and burying their dead 31 years after the Srebrenica massacre.
    Lina Sergie Attar, Time, 6 Aug. 2026
  • For the three children of the stranger who had returned to seek refuge, fifteen years had passed between the collective joy of independence and the personal tragedy of burying their father in a graveyard already full of their uncles’ memories.
    Literary Hub, Literary Hub, 6 Aug. 2026
Verb
  • Walker-Yeager, who ran on abolishing or significantly reducing residents and seniors’ property tax burdens, historic preservation and increasing the state minimum wage, had 124 votes.
    Sofi Zeman, Kansas City Star, 5 Aug. 2026
  • As a vigil for the deceased grew, some messages called for abolishing ICE.
    Allen Devlin, CBS News, 4 Aug. 2026
Verb
  • But therein lies the problem with ruining baseball and predicting the World Series in August.
    Ian Miller OutKick, FOXNews.com, 5 Aug. 2026
  • Tarik Skubal did not go into last week expecting to be the latest avatar for the Los Angeles Dodgers ruining baseball.
    Fabian Ardaya, New York Times, 4 Aug. 2026

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Cite this Entry

“Annihilating.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/annihilating. Accessed 11 Aug. 2026.

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