Terminator

How to spell terminator

10 letters · 4 syllables

How to pronounce terminator

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does terminator mean?

1. nounA person or thing that brings something to an end or carries out a termination.

Terminator in a sentence

• The software acts as a process terminator, shutting down stalled tasks automatically.

• The crimped fitting serves as a cable terminator at the end of the run.

Where does terminator come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word reaches back to the Latin noun terminus, which literally meant a boundary stone or the marker set at the edge of a field, and by extension any limit or end point. From that noun Latin formed the verb terminare, meaning 'to set a boundary' or 'to bring to an end', and an agent of that verb would be a terminator, the thing that ends or bounds something. English assembled the modern form from the verb 'terminate' plus the familiar Latin agent suffix -or, the same ending seen in 'actor' and 'creator'. The astronomical sense, naming the line that divides the lit and unlit halves of a planet or moon, was adopted in the 1700s because that line marks the boundary of the daylight. The same terminus root still surfaces in everyday English in 'term', 'terminal', and 'terminus' itself, and noticing that shared root helps fix the single 't' and the -ator ending in the spelling.

How the word is built

• termin- (from Latin terminus: boundary, end)
• -ate (verb-forming)
• -or (agent noun: one who/that which does)