terminator
- 01 C1 Advanced
a person who brings something to an end or finishes a process.
an agent or person who terminates a process, contract, or situation.
Simple“The company hired a terminator to handle the closing of the old factory.”
In context“In corporate restructuring, the consultant acted as a terminator, systematically ending underperforming contracts to save the parent company.”
SynonymsfinisherenderAntonyms - 02 C2 Proficiency
the line on a moon or planet that separates the side in sunlight from the side in darkness.
the dividing line between the illuminated and unilluminated parts of a celestial body.
Simple“Through the telescope, you can see craters clearly along the moon's terminator.”
In context“Shadows are longest and most dramatic near the terminator, providing astronomers with the best view of lunar topography.”
Synonyms - 03 C1 Advanced
a piece of hardware or a code that marks the end of a data stream.
a device or character sequence that signifies the end of a transmission or prevents signal reflection in a circuit.
Simple“The programmer forgot to add a null terminator at the end of the string.”
In context“Without a proper terminator at the end of the SCSI chain, signal reflections can cause significant data corruption.”
Synonymsmarkerend cap - 04 C2 Proficiency
a specific part of a gene that tells the cell to stop copying DNA.
a section of nucleic acid sequence that marks the end of a gene or operon in genomic DNA during transcription.
Simple“The enzyme stops moving once it reaches the terminator sequence on the DNA.”
In context“The researchers identified a rho-independent terminator that effectively halted RNA polymerase activity in the bacterial culture.”
Antonyms - 05 B2 Upper Intermediate
a powerful robot or android designed to hunt and kill people, usually from movies.
a fictional, highly resilient autonomous android designed for assassination or extermination.
Simple“The movie features a terminator sent from the future to change history.”
In context“The cultural image of the terminator has become a standard metaphor for the potential dangers of uncontrolled artificial intelligence.”
* Partly from post-classical Latin terminator (5th century), from Latin terminō; partly from terminate + -or. * (android that kills humans): After the 1984 film The Terminator.
Etymology adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.