Meaning & use
exterminate
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Meanings
verbtransitive
To kill all of a kind of living thing, especially pests, so none are left.
Grammar: Takes an object: exterminate the rats.
Patterns
- exterminate something
- exterminate something from somewhere
The company exterminated the termites in our house.
They tried to exterminate the weeds across the farm.
Pest control workers exterminate mice in apartment blocks.
verbtransitiveformal
To deliberately wipe out a whole group of people.
Grammar: Takes an object, usually a group: exterminate a people.
Patterns
- exterminate a people
The regime tried to exterminate an entire minority, which historians call genocide.
Word forms
| third person singular | exterminates |
|---|---|
| past tense | exterminated |
| past participle | exterminated |
| -ing form | exterminating |
Common combinations
- exterminate pests
- We exterminate pests safely.
- exterminate rats
- They exterminated the rats.
- hire an exterminator
- We hired an exterminator.
- completely exterminate
- The insects were completely exterminated.
Synonyms and how they differ
- eradicate
- Eradicate is broader and applies to diseases and ideas, while exterminate is about killing living things.
- wipe out
- Wipe out is informal and can mean destroy anything, not only living things.
- kill
- Kill is general and can be one animal, whereas exterminate means every one.
Opposites
Word family
- extermination noun
- the complete killing of a kind of living thing
- exterminator noun
- a person whose job is killing pests
Commonly confused: exterminate or terminate?
exterminate vs terminate
Terminate means to end something such as a contract; exterminate means kill all of something.
Practice
The landlord hired a company to ___ the cockroaches in the building.
Choose one answer.
Exterminate means kill off completely. Terminate means end something like a contract.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “exterminate”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.