as in to grind
to reduce to fine particles
eons of incessant pounding by the waves have comminuted the once-rocky shoreline into a bed of fine-grained sand
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Example Sentences
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Recent Examples of comminute
The report of displacement (out of alignment) is not as worrisome as if the fracture was comminuted (pieces).
—
Profootballdoc, sandiegouniontribune.com, 5 Nov. 2017
Profootballdoc, sandiegouniontribune.com, 5 Nov. 2017
Recent Examples of Synonyms for comminute
Verb
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Keeping ‘the wolf away from the door’ Colorado River cuts could hit the tiny town of Cave Creek harder than any other municipality, town officials say, potentially grinding growth to a halt and pulling the town government into lawsuits over unfulfilled water contracts.—
Austin Corona,
AZCentral.com,
6 Nov. 2025
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And when daily wear and tear was simulated – through continuous electric-toothbrush abrasion equivalent to about a year of brushing, as well as chewing and grinding – the teeth actually had superior resistance to wear, fracture and acid attack compared with natural enamel.—
New Atlas,
New Atlas,
5 Nov. 2025
Verb
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And so the Jays did, piling up one quality at-bat after another, grinding down Snell, pounding the Dodgers’ suspect bullpen.—
Ken Rosenthal,
New York Times,
25 Oct. 2025
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Its rain has already been pounding parts of Haiti and the Dominican Republic for several days, flooding roadways and triggering landslides.—
Briana Waxman,
CNN Money,
24 Oct. 2025
Verb
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Wrappers and crushed soda cans.—
Literary Hub,
Literary Hub,
7 Nov. 2025
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White people organized a brutal resistance against Black citizenship, deploying violence and terror to crush Reconstruction.—
Equal Justice Initiative,
USA Today,
6 Nov. 2025
Verb
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To achieve professional-looking velvet nails, keep in mind that the most intense tones (such as reds, greens, or blues amplify the depth), while in soft colors like gray, beige or powdered pink, the texture becomes more discreet but just as elegant.—
Laura Solla,
Glamour,
25 Oct. 2025
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All-mountain skiing is a style of skiing that covers the entire mountain, from groomed trails to powder, bumps, trees, and variable terrain.—
Marina Knight,
Outside,
17 Oct. 2025
Verb
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The discussion came as Robinhood posted third quarter results that beat analyst expectations for both revenue and earnings.—
Sydney Lake,
Fortune,
6 Nov. 2025
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That figure, which is provided by payrolls processing company ADP, beat the Dow Jones consensus estimate for an increase of 22,000.—
Yeo Boon Ping,
CNBC,
6 Nov. 2025
Verb
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The lights will shine until mid-January before being taken down and milled into lumber that will be donated to Habitat for Humanity.—
Rachel Chang,
Travel + Leisure,
30 Oct. 2025
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Roughly 60 of us were gathered in an industrial event space on graduation day at Harvard, looking eight floors down from an outdoor deck at the students milling below in caps and gowns.—
Nick Stern,
Rolling Stone,
30 Oct. 2025
Verb
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After pulverizing Gaza so relentlessly that a country founded in the shadow of the Holocaust was judged by experts as complicit in genocide, Israel’s military and intelligence apparatus also struck out elsewhere—Lebanon, Yemen, Iran, Syria.—
Karl Vick,
Time,
11 Oct. 2025
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On both days, nuance was pulverized in the heat of war.—
Caity Weaver,
The Atlantic,
8 Oct. 2025
Verb
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Ethan Hawke stars as Lorenz Hart of legendary songsmiths Rodgers & Hart as the prolific partnership disintegrates to his great dismay.—
Jill Goldsmith,
Deadline,
17 Oct. 2025
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This difference sounds small, but preventing a few tenths of a degree of warming could keep polar ice caps from completely disintegrating, coral reefs from collapsing and other tipping points from triggering.—
Syris Valentine,
Scientific American,
16 Oct. 2025
Cite this Entry
“Comminute.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/comminute. Accessed 8 Nov. 2025.
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