destructor

Translingual

Etymology

English destructor

Adjective

destructor

1. (taxonomy) A taxonomic descriptor, a specific epithet, for naming species that are destructive in some manner.

Derived terms

• Varroa destructor

English

English Wikipedia has an article on:

destructor

Wikipedia

Etymology

From destruct +‎ -or.

Pronunciation

• Audio (US):

  (file)

Noun

destructor (plural destructors)

1. One who destructs.
2. A furnace or oven for the burning or carbonizing of refuse.
3. (object-oriented programming) A function that runs when an object is no longer required, used to release any resources that it was using.

   Antonym: constructor

   Coordinate term: finalizer

Descendants

• Translingual: destructor

Translations

one who destructs

Chinese: Mandarin: 破壞者 / 破坏者 (zh) (pòhuàizhe) Finnish: purkaja (fi) French: destructeur (fr) m German: Zerstörer (de) m Portuguese: destruidor (pt) Russian: разруши́тель (ru) m (razrušítelʹ), разруши́тельница (ru) f (razrušítelʹnica)

cleaning-up commands in object oriented programming

Chinese: Mandarin: 析構函數 / 析构函数 (xīgòu hánshù) Czech: destruktor m Finnish: destruktori, hajotin, purkaja (fi) French: destructeur (fr) m German: Destruktor (de) m Japanese: デストラクタ (ja) (desutorakuta), 消去子 (しょうきょし, shōkyoshi) (rare) Polish: destruktor (pl) m Portuguese: destrutor m Russian: дестру́ктор (ru) m (destrúktor) Spanish: destructor (es) m Vietnamese: hàm huỷ

Anagrams

• retroducts

Catalan

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin dēstrūctōrem.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): (Central, Balearic) [dəs.tɾukˈto]
• IPA^(key): (Valencia) [des.tɾukˈtoɾ]

• Audio (Barcelona):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -o(ɾ)

Adjective

destructor (feminine destructora, masculine plural destructors, feminine plural destructores)

1. destructive

Noun

destructor m (plural destructors)

1. destroyer (someone who destroys)
2. (computing) destructor
3. (military, nautical) destroyer, a tyoe of warship

Related terms

• destruir

Further reading

• “destructor”, in Diccionari de la llengua catalana [Dictionary of the Catalan Language] (in Catalan), second edition, Institute of Catalan Studies [Catalan: Institut d'Estudis Catalans], April 2007
• “destructor”, in Gran Diccionari de la Llengua Catalana, Grup Enciclopèdia Catalana, 2025
• “destructor” in Diccionari normatiu valencià, Acadèmia Valenciana de la Llengua.
• “destructor” in Diccionari català-valencià-balear, Antoni Maria Alcover and Francesc de Borja Moll, 1962.

Latin

Pronunciation

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): [deːsˈtruːk.tɔr]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): [desˈtruk.tor]

Noun

dēstrūctor m (genitive dēstrūctōris); third declension

1. destroyer

Declension

Third-declension noun.

	singular	plural
nominative	dēstrūctor	dēstrūctōrēs
genitive	dēstrūctōris	dēstrūctōrum
dative	dēstrūctōrī	dēstrūctōribus
accusative	dēstrūctōrem	dēstrūctōrēs
ablative	dēstrūctōre	dēstrūctōribus
vocative	dēstrūctor	dēstrūctōrēs

Descendants

• Catalan: destructor
• French: destructeur
  • → Romanian: destructor
• Italian: distruttore
• Portuguese: destrutor
• Spanish: destructor

References

• “destructor”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “destructor”, in Gaffiot, Félix (1934), Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.

Romanian

Etymology

Borrowed from French destructeur.

Noun

destructor m (plural destructori, feminine equivalent destructoare)

1. destroyer

Declension

	singular			plural
	indefinite	definite		indefinite	definite
nominative-accusative	destructor	destructorul		destructori	destructorii
genitive-dative	destructor	destructorului		destructori	destructorilor
vocative	destructorule			destructorilor

Spanish

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin dēstrūctor.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /destɾuɡˈtoɾ/ [d̪es.t̪ɾuɣ̞ˈt̪oɾ]

• Audio (Colombia):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -oɾ
• Syllabification: des‧truc‧tor

Adjective

destructor (feminine destructora, masculine plural destructores, feminine plural destructoras)

1. destructive
2. destroying

Noun

destructor m (plural destructores, feminine destructora, feminine plural destructoras)

1. destructor

Noun

destructor m (plural destructores)

1. (military, nautical) destroyer (warship)

Hypernyms

• buque de guerra

Related terms

• destruir

Further reading

• “destructor”, in Diccionario de la lengua española [Dictionary of the Spanish Language] (in Spanish), online version 23.8.1, Royal Spanish Academy [Spanish: Real Academia Española], 15 December 2025