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eradicate

era·di·cate

UK/ɪˈɹæd.ɪ.keɪt/ US/əˈræd.əˌkeɪt/ uncommon archaic obsolete

verb

1.

kill in large numbers

  • “the plague wiped out an entire population”
Synonyms
2.

destroy completely, as if down to the roots

  • “the vestiges of political democracy were soon uprooted”
  • “root out corruption”
Synonyms

Origin

PIE word *wréh₂ds From Middle English eradicaten (“to eradicate”), from eradicat(e) (“eradicated”, past participle of eradicaten) + -en (verb-forming suffix), borrowed from Latin ērādīcātus, the perfect passive participle of ērādīcō (“to uproot, root out; to anihilate, eradicate”), from ē- (“out”) + rādīx (“root”) + -ō (verb-forming suffix). See also radish.

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WordNet 2.1 (Princeton University). Wiktionary (CC BY-SA). CMU Pronouncing Dictionary. WordNet 2.1 Copyright Princeton University. All rights reserved. Wiktionary content is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike Licence.