as in destruction
the state or fact of being rendered nonexistent, physically unsound, or useless
the virtual extermination of the native tribes by the colonizers
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Recent Examples of extermination
At extermination camps, the Nazis burned the remains of Jewish victims in crematoria to hide evidence of genocide.
—
Jesse Kirsch, NBC news, 4 Nov. 2025
In Danis Tanovic’s underseen drama, Farrell plays an Irish war photographer who gets separated from his best friend and colleague in Iraqi Kurdistan in the prelude to Saddam Hussein’s 1988 extermination campaign against the Kurds.
—Bilge Ebiri, Vulture, 30 Oct. 2025
In New Zealand, a nationwide extermination campaign is underway.
—NPR, 26 Oct. 2025
The study continued until deportations to the Treblinka extermination camp, where many of the researchers would ultimately perish, began, in 1942.
—Clayton Dalton, New Yorker, 18 Oct. 2025
Besides extermination, these companies also may be able to assist with locating and sealing entry points or making other recommendations for exclusion.
—Arricca Elin Sansone, Southern Living, 1 Oct. 2025
An extermination of the brutes in the Middle East, presided over by Obama’s successors, has been followed by a swift cancellation by Trumpian decree of the postracial age.
—Pankaj Mishra, Harpers Magazine, 19 Sep. 2025
But the spread of agriculture and extermination of prairie dogs have sharply reduced the owl’s western populations.
—Cecilia Rodriguez, Forbes.com, 18 Sep. 2025
The four women, three of whom were Jewish, were all inmates of Auschwitz, the Nazis’ most notorious extermination camp outside the southern Polish city of Oświęcim.
—Literary Hub, 17 Sep. 2025
Jesse Kirsch, NBC news, 4 Nov. 2025
In Danis Tanovic’s underseen drama, Farrell plays an Irish war photographer who gets separated from his best friend and colleague in Iraqi Kurdistan in the prelude to Saddam Hussein’s 1988 extermination campaign against the Kurds.
—Bilge Ebiri, Vulture, 30 Oct. 2025
In New Zealand, a nationwide extermination campaign is underway.
—NPR, 26 Oct. 2025
The study continued until deportations to the Treblinka extermination camp, where many of the researchers would ultimately perish, began, in 1942.
—Clayton Dalton, New Yorker, 18 Oct. 2025
Besides extermination, these companies also may be able to assist with locating and sealing entry points or making other recommendations for exclusion.
—Arricca Elin Sansone, Southern Living, 1 Oct. 2025
An extermination of the brutes in the Middle East, presided over by Obama’s successors, has been followed by a swift cancellation by Trumpian decree of the postracial age.
—Pankaj Mishra, Harpers Magazine, 19 Sep. 2025
But the spread of agriculture and extermination of prairie dogs have sharply reduced the owl’s western populations.
—Cecilia Rodriguez, Forbes.com, 18 Sep. 2025
The four women, three of whom were Jewish, were all inmates of Auschwitz, the Nazis’ most notorious extermination camp outside the southern Polish city of Oświęcim.
—Literary Hub, 17 Sep. 2025
Recent Examples of Synonyms for extermination
Noun
-
There are two questions Gazans have usually asked each other since the start of this campaign of unrelenting and systematic destruction, starvation, displacement and mass killing.—
Literary Hub,
Literary Hub,
10 Nov. 2025
-
But catastrophes also tend to reveal deficits in society, and the patterns of destruction and abandonment that followed the fire—which have roots in America’s past and its present—tell us something about the country’s future, too.—
Vann R. Newkirk II,
The Atlantic,
10 Nov. 2025
Noun
-
After constant requests during two years of war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza, the Israeli military finally brings our correspondent into the territory to see the devastation in post-war northern Gaza firsthand.—
Greg Dixon,
NPR,
5 Nov. 2025
-
In 2005, following the devastation of Hurricane Katrina, park officials made the decision to close Six Flags New Orleans permanently.—
Colson Thayer,
PEOPLE,
4 Nov. 2025
Noun
-
Sam Altman, of OpenAI, has claimed that generative AI could bring about the end of human civilization, and that AI poses a risk of extinction on a par with nuclear warfare and global pandemics.—
Literary Hub,
Literary Hub,
5 Nov. 2025
-
And the global population of whales declined precipitously to the point of near extinction.—
Justin Worland,
Time,
5 Nov. 2025
Noun
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At the center of all the glitzy havoc—her face often looming on a huge flat screen that rolls around the stage, following actors like a hulking LED stalker—is of course Chenoweth.—
Sara Holdren,
Vulture,
10 Nov. 2025
-
After those rules are broken, the gremlin spawns more of its kind and end up wrecking havoc on Billy’s hometown during Christmas.—
Rebecca Rubin,
Variety,
6 Nov. 2025
Noun
-
The administration maintains that the NCPC has jurisdiction over construction rather than demolition.—
Adeola Adeosun,
MSNBC Newsweek,
11 Nov. 2025
-
Barrett Lo has said demolition could begin before the end of 2025.—
Adrienne Davis,
jsonline.com,
10 Nov. 2025
Noun
-
Maduro has ruled Venezuela with an iron fist since 2013 and has clung to power despite an apparently decisive loss in the 2024 presidential election.—
Stefano Pozzebon,
CNN Money,
5 Nov. 2025
-
The former Indianapolis Colts owner didn’t want anyone to miss his message following the Colts’ catastrophic end-of-season collapse that was punctuated by a 26-11 loss to the 3-14 Jaguars.—
James Boyd,
New York Times,
5 Nov. 2025
Cite this Entry
“Extermination.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/extermination. Accessed 11 Nov. 2025.
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