Eradication

How to spell eradication

11 letters · 5 syllables

How to pronounce eradication

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does eradication mean?

1. nounThe complete destruction or removal of something unwanted, such as a disease, pest, or problem.

Eradication in a sentence

• The global eradication of smallpox was a major public health victory.

• The council committed funds to the eradication of invasive weeds along the river.

Where does eradication come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word traces back to the Latin verb eradicare, which meant literally 'to pull up by the roots' and so came to mean 'to destroy utterly'. It was built from the prefix ex-, meaning 'out', and radix, the Latin word for 'root', the same root that gives us 'radish' and 'radical'. The idea was vividly agricultural: if you tear a weed out by its roots, it cannot grow back, so eradicare became a natural metaphor for wiping something out completely. English borrowed the related verb 'eradicate' in the 1500s, and the noun 'eradication' followed for the act or process of complete removal. Remembering that the middle holds 'radic', the same chunk as in 'radical' and 'radish', helps explain why it is spelled with that 'c' rather than a 'k'.

How the word is built

• e- (out, from Latin ex-)
• radic (root, from radix)
• -ation (noun of action)