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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
Book Marks
july 17, Literary Hub, 17 July 2025
Paddlers, too, come for the abundant waterways, taking canoes and kayaks—rentals are widely available—past the Kickapoo’s sandstone cliffs or beaching them on the sandbars of the Wisconsin River, terminus of the 125-mile Kickapoo.
—Elaine Glusac, AFAR Media, 26 June 2025
And organizers of the tour always provide portable showers at this city's terminus.
—Michael Barnes, Austin American Statesman, 2 July 2025
There are also many restaurants in Penn Station in Manhattan, the New York terminus for New Jersey Transit trains.
—Matthew Haag, New York Times, 17 May 2025
See All Example Sentences for terminus
Cite this Entry
“Terminus.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/terminus. Accessed 30 Jul. 2025.
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terminus
noun
Medical Definition
terminus
noun
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