Annihilate
/əˈnaɪ.ə.leɪt/noun
To destroy completely; to reduce to nothing.
Did you know?Annihilate comes from Latin roots meaning “to reduce to nothing,” and its history is tied to the same number-word root that gave English “nil,” “nil,” and “null.”
Etymological Timeline
Proto-Indo-European
PIE
*ne-
“not; no”
Latin
Latin
nihil
“nothing”
Medieval Latin
Latin
annihilāre
“to reduce to nothing, destroy completely”
15th Century
English
annihilate
“to destroy utterly; make into nothing”
Modern English
English
annihilate
“to destroy completely”