the.com/annihilation
Total destruction, leaving nothing behind — not even remains to recover or grieve over.
means The complete destruction of something, reducing it to absolutely nothing rather than just wreckage.
from From Latin 'annihilare' — 'an-' (to) plus 'nihil' (nothing) — literally 'to bring to nothing.' That same 'nihil' gives us 'nihilism,' the philosophy of believing in nothing at all. To annihilate something, then, isn't just to break or kill it — it's to march it back across the border into non-existence.
- physics term
- matter plus antimatter equals pure energy, zero residue
- etymology
- latin nihil, meaning nothing, plus ad, meaning thoroughly
- vs destruction
- destruction leaves rubble, annihilation leaves absence
- total conversion
- the only process that turns 100 percent mass to energy