as in to grind
to reduce to fine particles eons of incessant pounding by the waves have comminuted the once-rocky shoreline into a bed of fine-grained sand

Synonyms & Similar Words

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Example Sentences

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Recent Examples of comminute The report of displacement (out of alignment) is not as worrisome as if the fracture was comminuted (pieces). Profootballdoc, sandiegouniontribune.com, 5 Nov. 2017
Recent Examples of Synonyms for comminute
Verb
  • Use a sieve to sift out any large chunks, and continue to grind until fine.
    Abigail Wilt, Southern Living, 18 Sep. 2025
  • Vince has an estranged adult daughter; Jake is an absentee father to a young son; Jake is partnered in his restaurant with a big celebrity; both brothers used to be rock stars; a former restaurant employee has an axe to grind with Jake.
    Kelly Lawler, USA Today, 18 Sep. 2025
Verb
  • Not the grand slam that had Cy Young Award winner Tarik Skubal pounding his fist into his glove as Thomas circled the bases and Progressive Field erupted.
    Zack Meisel, New York Times, 13 Sep. 2025
  • Eighteen students who fled from the shooting took shelter at a home just down the road, after an initial group of them pounded on the door asking for help, resident Don Cygan told 9News.
    Katie Langford, Boston Herald, 13 Sep. 2025
Verb
  • An employee at a frozen pizza manufacturing plant was fatally crushed by a robotic machine, Wisconsin officials told news outlets.
    Mitchell Willetts, Kansas City Star, 18 Sep. 2025
  • The thrilling highs and crushing lows of entrepreneurship were on repeat in an addictive, never-ending cycle.
    Sarah Barnes-Humphrey, Forbes.com, 18 Sep. 2025
Verb
  • As both business owner and head baker — her black chef’s coat is usually powdered with flour, her hands stained with icing — Vee won’t have time this June to participate in the Chicago Pride Parade.
    Sophie Levenson, Chicago Tribune, 17 June 2025
  • Pallets of jurema bark, powdered and shredded, in a storage room at one of Akasha Song’s production facilities.
    Andy Greenberg, Wired News, 22 May 2025
Verb
  • The Golden Bears opened the 2024 season by beating UC Davis 31-13, Auburn 21-14 and SDSU 31-10.
    Kirk Kenney, San Diego Union-Tribune, 17 Sep. 2025
  • The South Korean automaker is projected to easily beat 2024 sales numbers for both EV models.
    Charles Singh, USA Today, 17 Sep. 2025
Verb
  • At odds with California’s climate goal of achieving zero-net carbon pollution, logging and milling wastes promptly release half a tree’s carbon into the atmosphere.
    John P. O’Brien, Mercury News, 13 Sep. 2025
  • The inside was precision-milled to make room for all of the necessary chips and sensors.
    Eleanor Pringle, Fortune, 9 Sep. 2025
Verb
  • In sacrificing its global influence for the chance to spend the past year pulverizing the previously unheard-of city of Pokrovsk in the Donbas, Russia has proved not its resilience but its near irrelevance.
    Jeremy Shapiro, The Atlantic, 10 Sep. 2025
  • This allows Carnival to crush leftovers and pulverize it into literal fish food that can be dumped into the sea.
    John Kell, Fortune, 3 Sep. 2025
Verb
  • These plans disintegrated in the wake of the October 7 Hamas attacks on southern Israel, which killed 1,200 people and resulted in the taking of 251 hostages.
    Melanie Goodfellow, Deadline, 8 Sep. 2025
  • But explaining Dyer’s motivations in the face of a disintegrating family portrayed in & Sons remains a bit of an uphill climb for Nighy.
    Etan Vlessing, HollywoodReporter, 7 Sep. 2025

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“Comminute.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/comminute. Accessed 20 Sep. 2025.

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