annihilates

Annihilates is the third-person singular present tense of the verb annihilate. The verb means to cause something to cease to exist, to destroy completely, or to reduce to nothing.

Etymology: The term derives from the French anéantir, itself from néant meaning nothing, ultimately from Latin nihil. The sense is to reduce something to nothing or to wipe it out.

In science, annihilation refers to particle-antiparticle annihilation, a process in which matter is destroyed and energy is released, often as photons. The mass of the annihilating particles is converted into energy, in accordance with E=mc^2. In quantum mechanics, the annihilation operator is used to describe the removal of a quantum from a system, and the term is used in broader mathematical contexts to denote the elimination of a state.

In ordinary language, annihilates can describe the complete destruction of opposition or plans, e.g., "The storm annihilates the crops" or "The argument annihilates the opponent's case." The term is often used metaphorically to convey total negation or obliteration, rather than partial damage.