• 滅亡めつぼう — downfall; ruin; destruction of a state or people
• 全滅ぜんめつ — complete destruction; to be wiped out
• 壊滅かいめつ — annihilation; devastating destruction
• 絶滅ぜつめつ — extinction; dying out completely
• 消滅しょうめつ — disappearance; vanishing; fading away
• 滅多めったに — rarely; hardly ever
• 滅ほろびる — to perish; to be destroyed
• 滅ほろぼす — to destroy; to wipe out

With the water radical 氵, 滅 suggests something being washed away until almost nothing remains — a flame going out, a city ruined, or a species dying out. The feeling is not just “broken” but “gone for good.”