eliminate
/ɪˈlɪm.ɪ.neɪt/verb
eliminate is spelled E-L-I-M-I-N-A-T-E: 9 letters and 4 syllables. It appears 14 times per million words in written English, the 5,595th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a verb, eliminate means “To completely remove, get rid of, put an end to” (English Wiktionary, September 2026).
How many letters and syllables are in eliminate?
| Letters | 9: E-L-I-M-I-N-A-T-E |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 4 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | 14 times per million words; the 5,595th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none measured in search |
| Rhymes with |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.
How common is eliminate?
Eliminate appears 14 times per million words in written English, the 5,595th most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How do you pronounce eliminate?
- UK /ɪˈlɪm.ɪ.neɪt/
- US /ɪˈlɪm.ɪ.neɪt/
- US /ɪˈlɪm.ə.neɪt/
Eliminate has 4 syllables (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-au-eliminate.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
What rhymes with eliminate?
One word on PlainSpell end in the same sounds as eliminate from its last stressed vowel (/ɪmɪneɪt/):
Computed by PlainSpell from the pronunciations in the English Wiktionary (dump of September 2, 2026): a rhyme shares every sound from the last stressed vowel to the end; ordered by written frequency (wordfreq 3.1).
Forms of eliminate
- eliminates present, singular, he/she/it
- eliminating participle, present
- eliminated participle, past
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does eliminate mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
verb
- 1
To completely remove, get rid of, put an end to.
- 2
To render (a facility) unusable, to destroy it; to disable (a soldier), make them unable to fight (typically but not necessarily by killing)
- 3
slangTo kill (a person or animal).
a ruthless mobster who eliminated his enemies
- 4
To excrete (waste products).
- 5
To exclude (from investigation or from further competition).
Bill was eliminated as a suspect when the police interviewed witnesses.
- 6
To record amounts in a consolidation statement to remove the effects of inter-company transactions.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Eliminate in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | éliminer , tuer |
| German | eliminieren, zerstören , umbringen, beseitigen |
| Portuguese | eliminar |
| Spanish | eliminar |
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.
Where does eliminate come from?
Borrowed from Latin ēlīminātus, perfect passive participle of ēlīminō (“to turn out of doors, banish”), from ē- + līmen (“a threshold”, līmin- in compounds) + -ō (first conjugation verb-forming suffix) (see -ate (verb-forming suffix)), akin to Latin līmes (“a boundary”); see also English limit and limen.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).