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terminate

UK/ˈtɜːmɪneɪ̯t/US/ˈtɝmɪneɪ̯t/
verbC1Common in everyday speech and writing · #5,064 of 15,258leans written

Other forms: terminated, terminating, terminates

To terminate is to bring something to an end. Terminate the contract, terminate employment, the line terminates here.

It is the formal word and it appears where the plain one would be awkward — terminate a pregnancy, terminate employment. On the railway a service that terminates goes no further. The Latin terminus means a boundary.

Definitions of terminate

  1. 1verbterminateTo bring something to an end.C1

    “The company terminated his contract after he missed too many days of work.”

terminate is an ending.

Where it comes from

Latin terminare means to set a limit, from terminus, a boundary marker. Term and terminal are relatives.

  1. Proto-Indo-European

    *terh₂-

  2. Latin

    terminātus

  3. Middle English

    terminaten — to bring to an end; to adjudicate; to end, stop; to border, confine, contain

  4. English, today

    terminate

Built from

  • terminō · Latin — to set bounds to, bound, limit, end, close, terminate
  • terminus · Latin — a bound, limit, end

From Middle English terminaten (“to bring to an end; to adjudicate; to end, stop; to border, confine, contain”) from terminat(e) + -en, Latin terminātus, perfect passive participle of terminō (“to set bounds to, bound, limit, end, close, terminate”) (see -ate), from terminus (“a bound, limit, end”) + -ō; see term, terminus. a doublet of termine, cognate with French terminer.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practise this word

terminate in the wild

  • Services from London also continue through Dartford to Greenhithe (for Bluewater) to terminate at Gravesend, Strood, Rochester or Gillingham.

    Dartford railway station

  • Common uses of signals are to interrupt, suspend, terminate or kill a process.

    Signal (IPC)

  • Station where a train terminates on a track that is (or can be) also used as a through track.

    List of New York City Subway terminals

  • The command causes the shell or program to terminate.

    Exit (command)

  • However, the majority of trains do not terminate at this station but continue to Yongsan station.

    Cheongnyangni station

1 / 2

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.

Related words

the terminō family

determineterminate

terminate — used about once every 1,210 pages · #5,064 · point at the bar for the others

  • terminator