Find the word definition

Crossword clues for annihilation

annihilation
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Annihilation

Annihilation \An*ni`hi*la"tion\, n. [Cf. F. annihilation.]

  1. The act of reducing to nothing, or nonexistence; or the 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; as, the annihilation of a corporation.

  2. The state of being annihilated.
    --Hooker.

Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
annihilation

1630s, from Middle French annihilation (restored from Old French anichilacion, 14c.), or directly from Late Latin annihilationem (nominative annihilatio), noun of action from past participle stem of annihilare (see annihilate).

Wiktionary
annihilation

n. 1 The act of reducing to nothing, or nonexistence; or the 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; as, the annihilation of a corporation. 2 The state of being annihilated. 3 (context physics English) The process of a particle and its corresponding antiparticle combining to produce energy.

WordNet
annihilation
  1. n. destruction by annihilating something [syn: obliteration]

  2. total destruction; "bomb tests resulted in the annihilation of the atoll" [syn: disintegration]

Wikipedia
Annihilation

Annihilation is defined as "total destruction" or "complete obliteration" of an object; having its root in the Latin nihil (nothing). A literal translation is "to make into nothing".

In physics, the word is used to denote the process that occurs when a subatomic particle collides with its respective antiparticle, such as an electron colliding with a positron. Energy and momentum are conserved, and the annihilated particles are replaced by photons, electromagnetic wave quanta with zero rest mass. Antiparticles have exactly opposite additive quantum numbers from particles, so the sums of all quantum numbers of the original pair are zero. Hence, any set of particles may be produced whose total quantum numbers are also zero as long as conservation of energy and conservation of momentum are obeyed. When a particle and its antiparticle collide, their energy is converted into a force carrier particle, such as a gluon, W/Z force carrier particle, or a photon. These particles are afterwards transformed into other particles.

During a low-energy annihilation, photon production is favored, since these particles have no mass. However, high-energy particle colliders produce annihilations where a wide variety of exotic heavy particles are created.

Annihilation (disambiguation)

Annihilation, in physics, is an effect that occurs when a particle collides with an antiparticle.

Annihilation may also refer to:

  • Annihilation (album), 2001 Rebaelliun album
  • Annihilation (comics), a Marvel Comics 2006 event featuring several cosmic characters.
    • Annihilation: Conquest, a 2007 series featuring similar themes and marketed as a sequel of the above comic book series
  • Annihilation (Athans novel), a 2004 Philip Athans novel
  • Annihilation (VanderMeer novel), a 2014 novel by Jeff VanderMeer and the first entry in the Southern Reach Trilogy
  • Annihilation (film), an upcoming film
  • Human extinction, or Human annihilation, the end of civilization
  • Mutual assured destruction
  • Creation and annihilation operators
  • A rule of classical logic
  • Annihilationism, a minority Christian belief that the unsaved are destroyed rather than sent to Hell or Purgatory.
  • "Annihilated", an episode from Law & Order: Special Victims Unit (season 8)
  • "Annihilation", a song by Crucifix from Dehumanization, covered by Sepultura and A Perfect Circle
  • Annihilation, a map pack for Call of Duty: Black Ops
  • Annihilation, a legal intoxicant sold by Mary Joy
  • Vaporization, instantaneous conversion of solid matter to a plasma or gas.
Annihilation (comics)

"Annihilation" was a 2006 crossover storyline published by Marvel Comics, highlighting several outer space-related characters in the Marvel Universe. The central miniseries was written by Keith Giffen, with editor Andy Schmidt.

Annihilation (Forgotten Realms novel)

Annihilation is a NY Times Best Seller fantasy novel by Philip Athans. It is the fifth book of the War of the Spider Queen hexad and, like other books in the series, it is set in the Forgotten Realms setting for Dungeons & Dragons.

Annihilation (album)

Annihilation is an album by the Brazilian death metal band Rebaelliun. It was released in 2001 by Hammerheart Records.

Annihilation (Fantastic Four 2006)
Annihilation (VanderMeer novel)

Annihilation is a 2014 novel by Jeff VanderMeer. It is the first in a series of three books called the Southern Reach Trilogy. The book describes a team of four (a biologist, an anthropologist, a psychologist, and a surveyor) who set out into an area known as Area X. The area is abandoned and cut off from the rest of civilization. They are the 12th expedition. The other expeditions have been fraught with disappearances, suicides, aggressive cancers, and mental trauma. The novel won the 2014 Nebula Award for Best Novel and the 2014 Shirley Jackson Award for best novel.

Annihilation (film)

Annihilation is an upcoming American science fiction drama film directed and written by Alex Garland based on the book of the same name by Jeff VanderMeer.

Usage examples of "annihilation".

Foreigners came from all over the world to buy them and I could have been the cause of their annihilation.

Upon the hypothesis that annihilation is the fate of man, they are not satisfied merely to take away from the present all the additional light, incentive, and comfort imparted by the faith in a future existence, but they arbitrarily remove all the alleviations and glories intrinsically belonging to the scene, and paint it in the most horrible hues, and set it in a frame of midnight.

I often said to myself, what are all the boasted advantages which my country reaps from the union, that can counterbalance the annihilation of her independence, and even her very name!

It is much more important, you see, than measuring nutrient levels and concocting chemical formulae for the annihilation of borer beetles.

In its figures it comprehends the created and uncreated, the commencement and the end, power and force, life and annihilation.

As early as nine a heliogram had been sent to them to retire as the opportunity served, but to leave the hill was certainly to court annihilation.

In others, one must learn to fuse knowledge with nescience, sound with silence, self with annihilation, life with death, the universe with the quark.

The thing that most Relativists fear the most is burnout: utter annihilation of personality.

Unknown Potency, at the same time forbidding him to make use of it, or any other sigil, on pain of instant annihilation.

All hail to our chosen leaders who kept watch and ward over a dreaming people, and did not allow themselves to be lulled into watchlessness by the lies of our enemies, who while talking of peace intrigued for our annihilation.

An analytic logic of identity and difference presents the only relationship between the two series as mutual avoidance or, upon contact and the impairment of purity, mutual annihilation.

His unspeakable act had branded him for destruction, and Margarite was determined to be the agent of that annihilation.

Out of lead and tin, he fashioned hollow images of nude men, filled them with earth collected from the center and four corners of France, inscribed the foreheads with the names of King Edward or one of his captains, and, when the constellations were right, buried them face down while he recited spells to the effect that this was perpetual expulsion, annihilation, and burial of the said King, captains, and all adherents.

To any dependent intelligence blessed with our human susceptibilities, reverential love and submission are as obligatory, natural, and becoming on the brink of annihilation as on the verge of immortality.

In retrospect, the sterilization program served as an early paradigm for techniques of annihilation and the public policy of sanitizing the culture against biological and genetic threat.