[syn: annihilation, disintegration]
The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:
Disintegration \Dis*in`te*gra"tion\, n.
(a) The process by which anything is disintegrated; the
condition of anything which is disintegrated.
Specifically
(b) (Geol.) The wearing away or falling to pieces of rocks or
strata, produced by atmospheric action, frost, ice, etc.
[1913 Webster]
Society had need of further disintegration before
it could begin to reconstruct itself locally.
--Motley.
[1913 Webster]
WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006):
disintegration
n 1: in a decomposed state [syn: decomposition,
disintegration]
2: a loss (or serious disruption) of organization in some
system; "a disintegration of personality"
3: separation into component parts [syn: dissolution,
disintegration]
4: the spontaneous disintegration of a radioactive substance
along with the emission of ionizing radiation [syn: decay,
radioactive decay, disintegration]
5: total destruction; "bomb tests resulted in the annihilation
of the atoll" [syn: annihilation, disintegration]
Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0:
145 Moby Thesaurus words for "disintegration":
abrasion, amiable weakness, atomization, attrition, beating,
biodegradability, biodegradation, bloodbath, blue ruin,
breakability, breakup, brecciation, brittleness, carnage,
changeableness, collapse, comminution, consumption, corrosion,
corruption, crack-up, crumbling, crushing, daintiness, damnation,
deactivation, decay, decimation, decomposition, degradability,
degradation, delicacy, demobilization, depredation, derangement,
desolation, despoilment, despoliation, destructibility,
destruction, detachment, detrition, devastation, diaspora,
diffusion, dilapidation, disarrangement, disarray, disarticulation,
disbandment, discomfiture, discomposure, disconcertedness,
disharmony, dishevelment, disjunction, dismissal, disorder,
disorderliness, disorganization, dispersal, dispersion,
disproportion, disruption, dissolution, disturbance, effeminacy,
entropy, exfoliation, flimsiness, fragility, fragmentation,
frailty, frangibility, granulation, granulization, grating,
grinding, haphazardness, havoc, hecatomb, holocaust, human frailty,
incoherence, indecisiveness, indiscriminateness, infirmity of will,
inharmonious harmony, inherent vice, irregularity, irresolution,
levigation, lightness, mashing, mildew, mold, moral weakness,
most admired disorder, nonsymmetry, nonuniformity, oxidation,
oxidization, parting, perdition, perturbation, pounding, powdering,
promiscuity, promiscuousness, randomness, ravage, release,
resolution, revolution, ruin, ruination, rust, scaling, scattering,
separation, shambles, shattering, shredding, slaughter, sleaziness,
slightness, smashing, split-up, spoilage, spoliation, trituration,
turbulence, undoing, unsubstantiality, unsymmetry, ununiformity,
upset, vandalism, velleity, waste, wispiness, womanishness, wrack,
wrack and ruin, wreck