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This word comes straight from Latin. In the Roman empire, a terminus was a boundary stone, and all boundary stones had a minor god associated with them, whose name was Terminus. Terminus was a kind of keeper of the peace, since wherever there was a terminus there could be no arguments about where your property ended and your neighbor's property began. So Terminus even had his own festival, the Terminalia, when images of the god were draped with flower garlands. Today the word shows up in all kinds of places, including in the name of numerous hotels worldwide built near a city's railway terminus.
Examples of terminus in a Sentence
Kevin Fixler, Idaho Statesman, 5 Feb. 2025
After the northern terminus, most would walk 8 miles farther to the nearest road, Highway 3 in British Columbia’s Manning Park.
—Bay Area News Group, The Mercury News, 3 Feb. 2025
A number of the world’s great deltas, including those at the terminus of the Mekong in Vietnam, the Nile in Egypt, and the Yangtze in China, are sediment starved.
—Bywarren Cornwall, science.org, 9 Jan. 2025
The Blue Line light rail would be extended from its I-485 terminus to Pineville.
—Alexandria Sands, Axios, 22 Jan. 2025
See all Example Sentences for terminus 
Dictionary Entries Near terminus
Cite this Entry
“Terminus.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/terminus. Accessed 19 Feb. 2025.
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terminus
noun
Medical Definition
terminus
noun
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