annihilation

What it means

1. countableuncountableThe act of destroying or otherwise turning into nothing, or nonexistence.

   Synonyms: extinction, eradication

2. countableuncountableThe act of destroying the form or combination of parts under which a thing exists, so that the name can no longer be applied to it.

   the annihilation of a corporation

3. countableuncountableThe state of being annihilated.

   If you ask how religion thus falls on the thorns and faces death, and in the very act annuls annihilation, I cannot explain the matter, for it is religion's secret, and to understand it you must yourself have been a religious man of the extremer type.

   1902, William James, “Lecture 2”, in The Varieties of Religious Experience: A Study in Human Nature […] , New York, N.Y.; London: Longmans, Green, and Co. […], →OCLC

   Synonyms: extinction

In a sentence

the annihilation of a corporation

Where it comes from

1. Latinannihilātiō
2. Middle Frenchannihilation
3. Englishannihilation

From Middle French annihilation, from Latin annihilātiō. By surface analysis, annihilate + -ion.