extermination
n. uncountablen. the act of killing or destroying a whole group of people, animals, or pests. It means getting rid of something completely so that none are left.
n. the act of killing or destroying a whole group or population completely. Often used in the context of pest control or, more gravely, in historical accounts of genocide.
The city started a program for the extermination of rats in the sewers.
The invasive species faced total extermination after the government introduced a targeted biological control agent to the island.
Historians documented the systematic extermination of the local population, detailing the bureaucratic efficiency with which the regime carried out its horrific campaign.
Borrowed from Middle French extermination, itself a learned borrowing from Ecclesiastical Latin exterminātiō.
Uncountable in its general sense; occasionally countable when referring to specific historical instances or programs.