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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
Shaun McKinnon, The Arizona Republic, 28 Oct. 2024
New Jersey chose me: I was born there and grew up on the Jersey Shore, just past the southern terminus of the Pine Barrens, where this story is set.
—Cressida Leyshon, The New Yorker, 13 Oct. 2024
Tara Dower, a 31-year-old ultrarunner and long-distance hiker born in North Carolina and based in Virginia, reached Georgia’s Springer Mountain, the southern terminus of the Appalachian Trail, at 11:53 P.M.
—Grayson Haver Currin, Outside Online, 22 Sep. 2024
Location Though its name claims Orchard Road, the Conrad sits just off Singapore’s glossy commercial drag, near its western terminus.
—Adam Erace, Travel + Leisure, 17 Sep. 2024
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 1 Dec. 2024.
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terminus
noun
Medical Definition
terminus
noun
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