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
Stockholm is the terminus for the southbound train. Geologists took samples from the terminus of the glacier. the terminus of the DNA strand
Recent Examples on the Web
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Zach Cross, followed by his wife Grayson and father Tim, hikes up Springer Mountain to the Southern terminus of the Appalachian Trail to start his thru-hike, Monday, May 1, 2023.—Judith Garrison, AJC.com, 15 Apr. 2026 The approximately 15-acre parking lot at the Meadowview light rail station, which was previously the southern terminus of the Blue Line, sits mostly empty, RT spokesperson Jessica Gonzalez said Tuesday.—Madison Smalstig, Sacbee.com, 14 Apr. 2026 But at its southern terminus, that impression begins to shift.—Josh Jackson, Los Angeles Times, 7 Apr. 2026 The difference stood out, especially on a drive with his son to Buck Hill, where the northern terminus of the trail is located.—Alex Kuffner, The Providence Journal, 6 Apr. 2026 See All Example Sentences for terminus
Word History
Etymology
Latin, boundary marker, limit — more at term entry 1