destructor

destructor

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

From destruct + -or.

• Audio (US):

  (file)

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

• Translingual: destructor

• retroducts

Borrowed from Latin dēstrūctōrem.

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

• Audio (Barcelona):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -o(ɾ)

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

1. destructive

destructor m (plural destructors)

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

• destruir

• “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, 2026
• “destructor” in Diccionari normatiu valencià, Acadèmia Valenciana de la Llengua.
• Alcover, Antoni Maria; Moll, Francesc de Borja (1963), “destructor”, in Diccionari català-valencià-balear (in Catalan)

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

dēstrūctor m (genitive dēstrūctōris); third declension

1. destroyer

Third-declension noun.

• “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.

Borrowed from French destructeur.

destructor m (plural destructori, feminine equivalent destructoare)

1. destroyer

Borrowed from Latin dēstrūctor.

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

• Audio (Colombia):

  (file)

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

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

1. destructive
2. destroying

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

1. destructor

destructor m (plural destructores)

1. (military, nautical) destroyer (warship)

• buque de guerra

• “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