Meaning & use
terminal
Last updated
Meanings
adjectivenot comparablemedical
Describing an illness that cannot be cured and will cause death.
Grammar: Goes before a noun or after be: terminal cancer.
Patterns
- terminal illness
- terminal cancer
Doctors told him the cancer was terminal.
She volunteers at a hospice for terminal patients.
He lived with a terminal illness for two years.
adjectivebefore a nounformal
At the end or final point of something.
Grammar: Often describes a stage, station or point.
Patterns
- the terminal stage
The terminal station is at the edge of town.
The company reached a terminal decline.
nouncountable
A building at an airport, station or port where passengers arrive and depart.
Grammar: Often with a name or number: Terminal 2.
Patterns
- bus terminal
- airport terminal
We met at the airport terminal.
The ferry terminal was crowded.
Their bus leaves from the terminal on Fifth Street.
nouncountablecomputing
A computer screen and keyboard, or a program, used to type commands.
Grammar: In computing: open a terminal.
Patterns
- open a terminal
She typed the command into the terminal.
The old bank used terminals connected to a mainframe.
nouncountabletechnical
A point where a wire connects to an electrical device.
Grammar: In electronics: the positive terminal.
Patterns
- battery terminal
Clean the battery terminal before reconnecting.
Attach the red wire to the positive terminal.
Word forms
| plural | terminals |
|---|
Common combinations
- terminal illness
- Her terminal illness changed how she spent her days.
- terminal cancer
- He was diagnosed with terminal cancer.
- airport terminal
- The airport terminal has free Wi-Fi.
- battery terminal
- A loose battery terminal stopped the car starting.
- terminal decline
- The industry entered terminal decline.
Synonyms and how they differ
- fatal
- Fatal means it causes death, while terminal means the illness will lead to death eventually.
- incurable
- Incurable stresses lack of a cure and may not be deadly.
- final
- Final means last in a series with no hint of death.
- depot
- Depot is a station or storage place for vehicles, usually less formal than terminal.
Opposites
Word family
- terminally adverb
- in a final or fatal way
- terminate verb
- to end
- termination noun
- an ending
- terminus noun
- the end point of a route
Commonly confused: terminal or fatal?
terminal vs fatal
A fatal accident kills at once; a terminal illness gradually leads to death.
Practice
What does terminal mean in terminal illness?
Choose one answer.
Terminal here means incurable and eventually deadly. Mild, contagious and new are not part of the meaning.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “terminal”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.