Word.ws English Dictionary

exterminate

UK/ɛkˈstəː.mɪ.neɪt//ɪkˈstɝ.mɪ.neɪt/

exterminate verb: to kill or otherwise permanently eliminate all of (a population, often of pests or undesirables), usually intentionally.

Verb

exterminate (third-person singular simple present exterminates, present participle exterminating, simple past and past participle exterminated)

  1. (transitive) To kill or otherwise permanently eliminate all of (a population, often of pests or undesirables), usually intentionally.
    • We'll use poison to exterminate the rats.
    • The natives everywhere eat their [sc. cuscuses] flesh, and as their motions are so slow, easily catch them by climbing; so that it is wonderful they have not been exterminated. It may be, however, that their dense woolly fur protects them from birds of prey, and the islands they live in are too...1869, Alfred Russel Wallace, The Malay Archipelago, volume II, London: Macmillan and Co., page 142
  2. (figuratively, transitive) To bring a definite end to; to finish completely.
    • The public school failed to exterminate truancy.
    Synonyms:
    stamp out

exterminate meaning in Tamil, Urdu, Bengali and Malayalam

exterminate in Tamil

to exterminate , to kill, destroy
களை kaḷai

exterminate in Urdu

مٹا دینا, پامال کرنا, اکھاڑنا

exterminate in Bengali

পুরোপুরি ধ্বংস করা, নির্মূল করা, বিনাশ করা

exterminate in Malayalam

പൂർണ്ണമായി നശിപ്പിക്കുക, മൂലച്ഛേദം ചെയ്യുക, സമൂലനാശം വരുത്തുക, നാമാവശേഷമാക്കുക
More languagesFewer languages
exterminate in Kannada
ಬೇರುಸಹಿತ ಕಿತ್ತುಹಾಕು, ಮೂಲೋತ್ಪಾಟನಮಾಡು, ನಾಶಮಾಡು, ನಿರ್ಮೂಲಮಾಡು
exterminate in Persian
ریشهکن کردن riše-kan kardan
exterminate in Thai
ทำลายล้าง, ฆ่าล้าง, กวาดล้าง gwàat-láang, ล้างบาง

Examples of exterminate in a sentence

  • The natives everywhere eat their [sc. cuscuses] flesh, and as their motions are so slow, easily catch them by climbing; so that it is wonderful they have not been exterminated.1869, Alfred Russel Wallace, The Malay Archipelago, volume II, London: Macmillan and Co., page 142:
  • When the geth showed signs of self-evolution, the quarians attempted to exterminate them.2008, BioWare, Mass Effect (Science Fiction), Redwood City: Electronic Arts, →ISBN, →OCLC, PC, scene: Geth Codex entry:

Synonyms of exterminate

All synonyms of exterminate

Forms of exterminate

third-person singular presentexterminates
present participleexterminating
past participleexterminated
pastexterminated

Past tense of exterminate: exterminated

Origin of exterminate

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).

Words formed from exterminate

Questions about exterminate

What does exterminate mean?
Exterminate means to kill or otherwise permanently eliminate all of (a population, often of pests or undesirables), usually intentionally.
What is exterminate in Tamil?
Exterminate in Tamil is களை (kaḷai). See Exterminate meaning in Tamil.
How do you use exterminate in a sentence?
The natives everywhere eat their [sc. cuscuses] flesh, and as their motions are so slow, easily catch them by climbing; so that it is wonderful they have not been exterminated.
What part of speech is exterminate?
Exterminate is a verb.
How do you pronounce exterminate?
Exterminate is pronounced /ɛkˈstəː.mɪ.neɪt/ (UK).
What is the past tense of exterminate?
The past tense of exterminate is exterminated.

Words near exterminate in the dictionary

  1. exteriour
  2. exteriourly
  3. exteriours
  4. exterminable
  5. exterminatable
  6. exterminate
  7. exterminated
  8. exterminates
  9. exterminating
  10. extermination
  11. extermination camp

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: exterminate (page history and authors); களை (Tamil) (page history and authors); exterminate (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); Exterminate (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); exterminate (Malayalam Wiktionary) (page history and authors); exterminate (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-exterminate.ogg.

Cite this entry: “exterminate.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/exterminate. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.