Exterminate

//ɪkˈstɝ.mɪ.neɪt// verb

verb ·Moderate ·High school level

Definitions

Verb
  1. 1
    To kill or otherwise permanently eliminate all of (a population of pests or undesirables), usually intentionally. transitive

    "We'll use poison to exterminate the rats."

  2. 2
    kill en masse; kill on a large scale; kill many wordnet
  3. 3
    To bring a definite end to; to finish completely. figuratively, transitive

    "The public school failed to exterminate truancy."

  4. 4
    destroy completely, as if down to the roots wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms
annihilateeradicatestamp outuprootuprootabate

Example

More examples

"Their job is to exterminate rats and mice."

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin exterminātus, perfect passive participle of exterminō (see -ate (verb-forming suffix)), from ex- (“thoroughly”) + terminō (“to finish, close, end”), from terminus (“limit, end”) + -ō (verb-forming suffix).

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.