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destroyed

adjective

Simple meaning

Damaged beyond repair.

Pronunciation

Say it like this:

dihstroyd

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US device voice
IPA pronunciation (US)

dɪstˈɹɔɪd

This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.

IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.

Word Review

Definition

Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.

adjective

  1. Damaged beyond repair; ruined; wrecked; obliterated.

  2. irelandinformalparticularly of a child

    Soiled, muddied, especially as a result of a fall or spill.

Word at a Glance

Difficulty
B1 · Intermediate
Frequency
Common
Typical Use
Everyday English

Word Aura™

How this word commonly comes across.

Aura for this meaning

This meaning: Damaged beyond repair; ruined; wrecked; obliterated.

Used this way, destroyed is a reasonably familiar word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It usually sounds natural in a wide range of settings.

Emotional tone
Neutral
Formality
Neutral
Intensity
Not strongly marked
How common
Moderately common
Connotation
No strong connotation
Usage feel
Neutral and straightforward

Nearby words

  • obliterate , more formal, and heavier in everyday conversation

Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.

More ways to use destroyed

  • “War left many cities destroyed.”adjective

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Common Patterns and Combinations

How this word naturally appears with others.

completely destroyedtotally destroyedentirely destroyed

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Similar Words, What’s the Difference?

Close in meaning, but not always interchangeable.

Word Family

Related forms, grouped by how they connect.

Inflected forms

Grammatical variations of the same word.

  • destroyverbBase word

    Do away with, cause the destruction or undoing of.

Word family

Words built from the same root.

  • destroyernounPerson or profession · specialist

    A small fast lightly armored but heavily armed warship.

More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin

Synonyms

Sense: damaged beyond repair

obliteratedwreckedobliterateFormalburnedburntblastedscorched

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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.