annihilating

verb

present participle of annihilate
1
as in eradicating
to destroy all traces of the family's attempts to annihilate the roach population in their apartment had met with little success

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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

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Antonyms & Near Antonyms
3
as in overcoming
to defeat by a large margin we didn't just win; we absolutely annihilated them!

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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 Hell, Ella Langley has been annihilating the Billboard charts lately. — Matt Reigle Outkick, FOXNews.com, 20 Oct. 2026 Dark stars are hypothetical primordial stars that, rather than producing energy through nuclear fusion, are instead powered by self-annihilating dark matter within their cores. — Robert Lea, Space.com, 21 Aug. 2026 The accusation works its way through society, annihilating reputations, deservedly or not. — Adam Gopnik, New Yorker, 17 Aug. 2026 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 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
Recent Examples of Synonyms for annihilating
  1. eradicating
  2. destroying
  3. overcoming
  4. erasing
  5. demolishing
  6. burying
  7. abolishing
  8. ruining
Verb
  • The Beijing propaganda machine has been busy eradicating the truth about the Tiananmen Square Massacre for nearly forty years.
    — Literary Hub, Literary Hub, 21 Oct. 2026
  • But somehow, in the midst of all this frat-boy revelry, Ilya is able to outline his vision for the future, one in which AI will have solved numerous human problems, including eradicating not only cancer but also loneliness and unhappiness.
    — Stephanie Zacharek, Time, 7 Oct. 2026
Definition of eradicating
Verb
  • One crab can eat more than 40 juvenile soft-shell clams in a day, while also destroying seagrass habitats.
    — Victoria Malloy, Time, 21 Oct. 2026
  • And then a seven-hour-long GRB came along—acting like a Death Star whose planet-destroying beam refused to switch off—that defied all explanation.
    — Robin George Andrews, Scientific American, 20 Oct. 2026
Definition of destroying
Verb
  • His early story is known as one of overcoming difficult circumstances and finding a creative outlet in music.
    — Kaitlyn Gomez, Miami Herald, 23 Oct. 2026
  • The song addresses overcoming adversity and using others’ doubts to fuel your passion.
    — Melinda Newman, Billboard, 22 Oct. 2026
Definition of overcoming
Verb
  • Cincinnati kept pouring it on after erasing the 13-0 deficit.
    — ABC News, ABC News, 25 Oct. 2026
  • In the bottom of the sixth, Sal Frelick led off the inning with a lefty-on-lefty solo homer off Ian Seymour in a nine-pitch at-bat, completely erasing the deficit.
    — Ryan Morik OutKick, FOXNews.com, 25 Oct. 2026
Definition of erasing
Verb
  • The district selected a redevelopment proposal this year that would include demolishing the school and building single-family homes.
    — Chris Higgins, Kansas City Star, 20 Oct. 2026
  • The 18-year-old female elephant got loose from her handler outside her enclosure, then went on the run, demolishing the door of a saloon on North Avenue, smashing in the window of another and walking through the fence around a vacant lot.
    — Kori Rumore, Chicago Tribune, 18 Oct. 2026
Definition of demolishing
Verb
  • Cedric Von Ferdinand, 34, is accused of killing Nadine Jett and burying her remains in her Oak Creek Road property, San Diego County Dist.
    — Summer Lin, Los Angeles Times, 22 Oct. 2026
  • Merced County Code does not explicitly state any countywide ordinance that prohibits burying a domestic pet on private property.
    — Angela Rodriguez, Sacbee.com, 21 Oct. 2026
Definition of burying
Verb
  • Other New York literati, like Camille Paglia, expressed similar views and endorsed the organization’s goal of abolishing the age of consent.
    — Jack Denton, Vulture, 22 Oct. 2026
  • Yet abolishing Greek life altogether is far from an easy proposition.
    — Brittany Shammas, CNN Money, 17 Oct. 2026
Definition of abolishing
Verb
  • The song is a cautionary tale about a brothel in New Orleans known for ruining many poor girls.
    — Literary Hub, Literary Hub, 23 Oct. 2026
  • As wet electrodes get thicker, the liquid binder migrates unevenly during drying, ruining the battery‘s structure.
    — Mrigakshi Dixit, Interesting Engineering, 30 Sep. 2026
Definition of ruining

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Cite this Entry

“Annihilating.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/annihilating. Accessed 27 Oct. 2026.

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