liquidation

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liquidation

/ˌlɪk.wəˈdeɪ.ʃən/ US, UK

Rhymes with -eɪʃən

Where it comes from

* From liquidate + -ion (suffix forming nouns denoting an action or process). Liquidate is a learned borrowing from Late Latin liquidātus, the perfect passive participle of liquidō (“to turn into a liquid, melt; to make clear”), from Classical Latin liquidus (“fluid, liquid; clear, transparent”) + -ō.

* Alternatively, a borrowing from Middle French liquidation, from liquider (“to liquidate”) + -ation (suffix forming nouns denoting an action or process). Liquider is probably a borrowing from Italian liquidare, itself also from the aforementioned Late Latin liquidō by borrowing.

Sense 1.2 (“the act of killing or abolishing”) is a semantic loan from Russian ликвида́ция (likvidácija).

noun liquidations

countable, uncountable The act or process of winding up the affairs of a company; the selling of the assets of a business as part of the process of dissolving the business. The store is having a liquidation sale: everything must go as they go out of business.
countable, uncountable The clearing off or settling of a debt. Their compenſation becomes part of the national debt, for the liquidation of which there is the one exhautſtleſs fund.
countable, euphemistic, uncountable The act or process of abolishing or eliminating; the murder of dehumanized victims. Near-synonyms: devitalization, fatality; see also Thesaurus:death, Thesaurus:killing
Similar: devitalization, fatality, death, end, tomb, celestial transfer, decease, decomposition, defunction, dematerialization, demise, dirt nap
countable, uncountable The partial clearing of the board, by an exchange of pieces, to obtain an obviously winning position. The liquidation with 31 Qd2 Rd2 put [Viktor] Korchnoi into a lost ending, but nothing else would have rescued him either.
countable, rare, uncountable The action or fact of partaking of an alcoholic drink. As regards liquidation, champagne, which, except at the tables of the wealthy, was never seen, for it was a guinea a bottle, is now almost as vin ordinaire.

Thesaurus

Closest in meaning: settlement, elimination, extermination, winding-up, divestment, bankruptcy, write-off, sell-off, insolvency, liquidity, selloff, sale, payment, receivership, profit-taking, regulation

Translations

Every language

noun process of converting into cash

日本語	流動化 ryūdōka
Ελληνικά	εκκαθάριση ekkathárisi

noun selling a business’s assets

Español	liquidación
Português	liquidação
Français	liquidation
Deutsch	Abwicklung, Liquidation
Italiano	liquidazione
Русский	ликвида́ция likvidácija
Tiếng Việt	thanh lí
العربية	تَصْفِية taṣfiya

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MLA

"liquidation." Wiktionary, via Micwyn, micwyn.com/word/liquidation. Accessed 5 Nov. 2026.

APA

liquidation. (n.d.). In Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Retrieved November 5, 2026, from https://micwyn.com/word/liquidation

Chicago

"liquidation." Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Accessed November 5, 2026. https://micwyn.com/word/liquidation.

BibTeX

@misc{liquidation_2026,
  title = {liquidation},
  howpublished = {Wiktionary, via Micwyn},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://micwyn.com/word/liquidation},
  urldate = {2026-11-05}
}