destruction

English

Etymology

Inherited from Middle English destruccioun, from Old French destrucion, from Latin dēstrūctiō, dēstrūctiōnem.

Pronunciation

(weak vowel distinction) IPA^(key): /dɪsˈtɹʌkʃən/, [dɪsˈtɹ̝̊ʷʌkʃən] ~ [dɪsˈtɹ̝̊ʷʌkʃn̩]; [dɪsˈt̠ɹ̠̊˔ʷʌkʃən] ~ [dɪsˈt̠ɹ̠̊˔ʷʌkʃn̩]
- Audio (US): (file)
(weak vowel merger) IPA^(key): /dəsˈtɹʌkʃən/, [dəsˈtɹ̝̊ʷʌkʃən] ~ [dəsˈtɹ̝̊ʷʌkʃn̩]; [dəsˈt̠ɹ̠̊˔ʷʌkʃən] ~ [dəsˈt̠ɹ̠̊˔ʷʌkʃn̩]
Rhymes: -ʌkʃən
Hyphenation: des‧truc‧tion

Noun

destruction (countable and uncountable, plural destructions)

The act of destroying.
The destruction of the condemned building will take place at noon.
- 1949, F. A. Hayek, “The Intellectuals and Socialism”, in University of Chicago Law Review, volume 16, number 3, Chicago: University of Chicago, →DOI, pages 431-432:
  It may be that a free society as we have known it carries in itself the forces of its own destruction, that once freedom has been achieved it is taken for granted and ceases to be valued, and that the free growth of ideas which is the essence of a free society will bring about the destruction of the foundations on which it depends.
- 1988, Joseph Tainter, “Introduction to collapse”, in The Collapse of Complex Societies, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, →ISBN, page 9:
  About 1500 B.C., however, a powerful earthquake caused widespread destruction, and thereafter there were major changes. An earlier script, undeciphered, but known as Linear A, was replaced by the Greek Linear B.
- 2026 October 26, Tom Phillips, Tiago Rogero, “‘Democracy always’: Lula vows no return to dictatorship in Brazil after election win”, in Katharine Viner, editor, The Guardian‎^[1], London: Guardian News & Media, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 27 October 2026:
  Lula’s victory will also have profound consequences for the environment and the Amazon rainforest in what is the world’s most biodiverse nation. On the eve of the vote, the former environment minister Marina Silva had warned that Bolsonaro, if elected, would seek to finish the “perverse project” of rainforest destruction started by his father, whose 2019-22 administration coincided with a surge in deforestation.
The results of a destructive event.
Amid the seemingly endless destruction, a single flower bloomed.
- 1838 January 27, Abraham Lincoln, The Perpetuation of Our Political Institutions (Lyceum Address), Springfield, Illinois; published in Marion Mills Miller, editor, Life and Works of Abraham Lincoln, volume 3, New York: Current Literature Publishing Co., 1907, page 15:
  If destruction be our lot we must ourselves be its author and finisher. As a nation of freemen we must live through all time or die by suicide.
(collective) A group of feral cats.
- 2019 June 6, “A gaggle, a confusion and a conspiracy - bizarre animal collective group names”, in BBC‎^[2], archived from the original on 27 January 2022:
  A group of wild cats is called a destruction.