English has many words for destroying, and each one paints a slightly different picture: knocking down, laying waste, pulling up by the roots, wiping out every letter, or taking apart piece by piece.
Key idea
Knocking down buildings: demolish, raze. Wide damage: devastate, ravage, decimate (a large part). Wiping out every trace: eradicate, annihilate, obliterate, expunge. Taking apart: dismantle.
Many of these words carry Latin pictures: eradicate holds radix (root), annihilate holds nihil (nothing), obliterate holds littera (letter), and decimate holds decimus (tenth).
The ten words
Common mistake
decimate once meant destroying one in ten; today it means destroying a large part, not all. raze (tear down) sounds like raise (build up).
| word | picture inside | what is left |
|---|---|---|
| demolish, raze | knock down; scrape flat | rubble, or flat ground |
| devastate, ravage | lay waste | wide damage |
| decimate | one in ten | a small part |
| eradicate | pull up by the roots | nothing can grow back |
| annihilate | bring to nothing | nothing |
| obliterate, expunge | wipe out the letters; mark with dots | no trace |
| dismantle | strip off the cloak | a pile of parts |
Decimate once meant destroying exactly one in ten; today it means destroying a large part, but not all. If everything is gone, choose annihilate or obliterate.