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destruction

/dɪsˈtɹʌkʃən/
nounB2Very common — you will meet it every day · #2,247 of 15,258neutral

Other forms: destructions

Destruction is the ruining of something so completely that it is gone. Total destruction, the destruction of the city, weapons of mass destruction.

It is stronger than damage and admits no repair, which is why it belongs to wars, fires and floods. Creative destruction is the economist's phrase for old industries being cleared away by new ones. Note the Latin struere, to build, which is also behind construct.

Definitions of destruction

  1. 1noundestructionThe complete ruining of something.B2

    “The fire caused the destruction of the entire old town.”

destruction is a ruining.

Where it comes from

Latin destructio comes from destruere, to pull down — de-, down, plus struere, to build. Construct is the same verb.

  1. Proto-Indo-European

    *strew-

  2. Latin

    destructio

  3. Old French

    destrucion

  4. Middle English

    destruccioun

  5. English, today

    destruction

Middle English destruccioun, from Old French destrucion, from Latin destructio.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practise this word

destruction in the wild

  • Protective measures against weapons of mass destruction are known as CBRN defense.

    Weapon of mass destruction

  • Habitat destruction (also termed habitat loss) occurs when a natural habitat is no longer able to support its native species.

    Habitat destruction

  • Competing theories of the cause of the Late Bronze Age collapse have been proposed since the 19th century, with most involving the violent destruction of cities and towns.

    Late Bronze Age collapse

  • The tapes and their destruction became public knowledge in December 2007.

    2005 CIA interrogation videotapes destruction

From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.