How to use terminate in a sentence

40 example sentences · verb, adjective

Terminate means to end something, especially when left in an incomplete state. Example: “We'll rough them all in before we start terminating any of them.”

Examples of terminate by meaning

verbTo end something, especially when left in an incomplete state.

to terminate a process before its completion
to terminate an effort, or a controversy

verbTo set or be a limit or boundary to.

to terminate a surface by a line

verbTo form an appropriate end on (a wire, cable, hose, pipe, etc), such as by applying a cable terminal or a hose ferrule.

We'll rough them all in before we start terminating any of them.

verbTo kill someone or something.

The enemy must be terminated by any means possible.

verbOf a mode of transport, to end its journey; or, of a railway line, to reach its terminus.

This train terminates at the next station.
It is a branch that climbs for 11½ miles into the picturesque Wealden hills until, apparently exhausted by the effort, it terminates a mile short of the village of Hawkhurst.1960 March, H. P. White, “The Hawkhurst branch of the Southern Region”, in Trains Illustrated, page 170

adjectiveHaving a definite and clear limit or boundary; having a determinate size, shape or magnitude.

Mountains on the Moon cast shadows that are very dark, terminate and more distinct than those cast by mountains on the Earth.

adjectiveExpressible in a finite number of terms; (of a decimal) not recurring or infinite.

One third is a recurring decimal, but one half is a terminate decimal.

More sentences with terminate

A quarter day is one terminating a quarter of the year.From the entry quarter
The contract can be terminated at any time with the agreement of both parties.From the entry of
Every rational number can be written as either a terminating decimal or a recurring decimal.From the entry recurring
Acceptance of the offer terminates the power of revocation that the offeror ordinarily has.From the entry offeror
If automatic error trapping is on and a trappable error occurs then the program is terminated.From the entry trappable
The pseudoinfinite loop seemed as though it would never terminate, but did eventually.From the entry pseudoinfinite
The linked list terminates with a trailer record.From the entry trailer
The computer program performed an illegal operation and was terminated.From the entry illegal
I-95 begins at Houlton, Maine and terminates at Miami, Florida, connecting numerous major cities in the East Coast.From the entry i
The company backfilled Joe's position after he was terminated.From the entry backfill
The government ordered the spies to be terminated with extreme prejudice: they did not want them to expose what they knew in a public trial.From the entry terminate with extreme prejudice
The loop terminates when all forbidden markings (those initially declared and those newly identified) are processed.2013, Marcello La Rosa, Pnina Soffer, Business Process Management Workshops: BPM 2012 International Workshops, Tallinn, Estonia, September…. From the entry coreachable
Jump out of a loop completely under certain conditions, thereby terminating the execution of a loop.2009, Rakesh Tyata, A Step in Programming with C, →ISBN, page 48. From the entry jump out
You need to put him out of your head, terminate this perpetual state of waffleness.2008 December 10, Sheryl Nadler, “A whole lot of proroguing goin’ on”, in The Hamilton Spectator, Hamilton, Ont.: Metroland Media Group…. From the entry waffleness
A country-boy Texas drawl, similar to Quelldon's own, spilled back from wherever the call terminated.2004, John Powell III, Hunter And Hunted, page 440. From the entry yallo
Microprinting of hydrophobic gold surfaces with carboxy terminated thiols generates hydrophilic domains.1998, Daniel Jed Harrison, Albert Van Den Berg, Micro Total Analysis Systems '98. From the entry microprinting
Goldberg apparently "kevorked" her — another useful on-lineism, which I had picked up on ECHO, meaning "terminated."1998, John Seabrook, Deeper: Adventures on the Net, page 226. From the entry kevork
He fondled her breast and ran his right hand along her entire trunk terminating at her buttocks.1991, Joe Butias, A Bachelors' Night Entertainment - Page 22. From the entry foresex
We trickle articles into inews and have terminated one of our neighbors.1982 November 30, Stuart, “Re: New proposal for handling net traffi - (nf)”, in net.news (Usenet), retrieved 15 Dec 2016, message-ID…. From the entry hackish
Burkat told him on the evening of Sunday, July 1, that Kritch “would have to terminate Mr.1981, Decisions and Orders of the National Labor Relations Board (U.S.), volume 253, page 1060. From the entry beep
Finally, caps are fitted to each end to terminate the copper outleads.1978, J. A. Lynes, David Christopher Pritchard, Developments in Lighting - Volume 2, page 93. From the entry outlead
Her multimillion NIH grant was terminated on 10 March.2025 March 31, Sara Reardon, “Are terminations of NIH grants wasting billions of taxpayer dollars?”, in Science, archived from the…. From the entry multimillion
With turnround times as short as five minutes at Rugeley Trent Valley, services were regularly being terminated short.2019 October, “Chase Line service to be split next May”, in Modern Railways, page 17. From the entry turnround
The reaction was terminated by cooling in an ice-water bath, followed by the addition of 25 μL of 2% sodium metabisulfide.2015 December 30, “Dry Priming of Maize Seeds Reduces Aluminum Stress”, in PLOS ONE, →DOI. From the entry metabisulfide
Upon redivorce, the in loco parentis relationship is considered terminated.2013, Robert E. Emery, Cultural Sociology of Divorce: An Encyclopedia, →ISBN, page 1158. From the entry redivorce
If it is deemed to be unuseful, attempt to terminate the action or reverse the impact as much as possible.2011, Anne Armstrong, Awakening the Divine Within, page 81. From the entry unuseful
Were you a party to any suit terminated within the year immediately preceding the filing of the original petition herein?2010, Carl Battle, Legal Forms for Everyone, page 192. From the entry herein
An escaped name must be terminated by a whitespace.2010, Stuart Sutherland, Don Mills, Verilog and SystemVerilog Gotchas, page 20. From the entry whitespace
Whether they were mindwiped upon their return to base, or simply terminated like useless equipment, Deutsch never knew.2001, Jeffrey A Carver, James A Carver, Eternity's End. From the entry mindwipe
In such cases a register is trashed (the one used for the loop variable) and the loop is terminated prematurely.1995 September 7, Bengt-Inge DalenbŠck, “TopSpeed-Borland-Windows-DLLs”, in comp.lang.modula2 (Usenet), retrieved 05 Jun 2022. From the entry flotating point
In any event, the marriage did not terminate Frances Wood's schoolteaching career, as marriage would have for most 19th-century women schoolteachers.1988 June 17, Harold Henderson, “Big Ideas”, in Chicago Reader, archived from the original on 03 Jun 2010. From the entry schoolteaching

Meaning of terminate

verb To end something, especially when left in an incomplete state.
verb To conclude.
verb To set or be a limit or boundary to.

Full definition of terminate

Questions about terminate in a sentence

How do you use terminate in a sentence?: Terminate is used as a verb and adjective. For example: “We'll rough them all in before we start terminating any of them.”
What is a short sentence with terminate?: “This train terminates at the next station.”
What does terminate mean?: Terminate means to end something, especially when left in an incomplete state.

Adapted from Wiktionary: terminate (page history and authors) and the entries each sentence comes from. Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws chose the sentences, left out offensive ones and quotations older than 1900, and marked the word in each. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated: 2026-09-02

Cite this page: “How to use terminate in a sentence.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/sentences/terminate. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.