verb

exterminate

ik-STUR-muh-nayt/ɪkˈstɜːrmɪneɪt/

To kill an entire group of living things.

The worker exterminates the wasps and places their treated nest in a sealed container.

A pest worker removes a fully treated small wasp nest into a sealed plain container; several tiny motionless wasps on nearby tray indicate complete elimination, non-graphic.

Etymology

exLatinout of

+terminLatinboundary, limit

+ateLatinpast-participle ending

The original image was driving someone out beyond a boundary. The meaning shifted from expelling or driving away to destroying utterly, which gives the modern sense of complete killing.

In context

KQED0:42

Are we trying to exterminate an entire people? What have we become as a nation?

Jane Fonda discusses Vietnam War protests - 1973 | KQED

More examples

Workers seal the building before exterminating the rats inside.
The treatment exterminated every bedbug hiding in the mattress.
These chemicals can exterminate entire colonies of ants.

Forms

exterminate · exterminates · exterminated · exterminating

extermination noun — The complete killing of a population.

exterminator noun — A person whose job is killing pests.

Similar words

kill: Kill does not imply destroying every member of a group.
eradicate: Eradicate also covers removing diseases or problems, not just organisms.
annihilate: Annihilate emphasizes total destruction and can apply to nonliving things.