Elimination

How to spell elimination

11 letters · 5 syllables

How to pronounce elimination

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does elimination mean?

1. nounThe act of removing or getting rid of something, or the state of being excluded.

Elimination in a sentence

• The new filter ensures the elimination of dust from the air supply.

• Their elimination from the tournament came after a narrow defeat.

Where does elimination come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word traces back to the Latin verb eliminare, which meant literally 'to put out across the threshold', that is, to show something the door. It was built from ex, meaning 'out', and limen, meaning 'threshold' or 'doorway', the same root that gives us 'liminal' for a transitional state and 'preliminary' for what comes before the main threshold. In its earliest English use during the late 1500s and early 1600s the sense was very close to the Latin: to expel or banish someone from a place. Over time the meaning broadened from physically casting out to the more abstract idea of removing, getting rid of, or excluding altogether, as in eliminating waste, errors, or competitors. The noun elimination follows the regular Latinate pattern, and its spelling trap lies in the unstressed middle vowels, where the schwa hides whether you write 'limin' rather than 'lemen' or 'lemin'.

How the word is built

• e- (variant of ex-: out)
• limin (from Latin limen: threshold, doorway)
• -ation (noun-forming suffix)