To exterminate means to destroy completely, wiping out every last trace of something. When people exterminate pests like termites or cockroaches in a building, they kill all of them so that none remain.

The word carries a sense of total destruction. Exterminators are professionals hired to eliminate unwanted insects or rodents from homes and businesses. Scientists worry about species being exterminated from the planet: when we talk about an animal being driven to extinction, we mean something similar. The passenger pigeon, once numbering in the billions, was wiped out by overhunting in the early 1900s.

While exterminate simply means complete destruction, it often suggests deliberate, systematic elimination rather than accidental loss. When you hear this word, you're hearing about something being removed entirely, whether it's bugs in your basement or a species disappearing from Earth forever.