terminator

plural terminators

1. Someone who terminates or ends something, especially (in later use) an assassin or exterminator.First known use 17th c.
2. computingA text character or string that serves to mark the end of a document or transmission.
3. astronomyThe line between the day side and the night side of a moon, planet or other celestial body.First known use 17th c.

   Another view captured by Wiseman shows the Earth divided by night and day. That frontier between light and darkness is known as the terminator.

   2026 April 3, Sofia Ferreira Santos, “Artemis II crew take 'spectacular' image of Earth”, in BBC

   1 more example

   Harriot, looking at the moon, saw the irregular terminator, the highlights and shadows, the mountain ranges and valleys that Galileo had described – and he also convinced himself that he saw Galileo's imaginary crater.

   2015, David Wootton, The Invention of Science, Penguin, published 2016, page 218

   Synonyms: twilight zone, grey line, separatrix

4. biochemistryA DNA sequence that causes RNA transcription to cease and an mRNA transcript to break off.First known use 20th c.
5. businessAn electrical device that absorbs reflection at the end of a transmission line.
6. literatureAn intelligent android created to destroy humans.

   Opposite of natural monsters there are technological monsters such as terminators, cyborgs, and robocops—all of which undermine dichotomies between the artificial and the organic, the prosthetic and the natural.

   2010, Tyson E. Lewis, Richard Kahn, Education Out of Bounds, page 1