Strong's Exhaustive Concordance of the King James Bible defines the word as meaning "ruin"; i.e., death, punishment, or destruction.
believe a more accurate translation of this word in these verses would be "punishment," referring to the kind of punishment that expiates guilt and restores the sinner to communion with God.
[citation needed] Biblical scholar Douglas J. Moo argues that, in 2 Thessalonians 1:9, the word should be understood to mean "ruin" rather than "extinction" because it is used alongside the Greek word aiōnios, meaning "eternal."
Moo therefore believes that people in hell will not be annihilated, but will live eternally away from the presence of God.
[1] The name "Olethros" is used to refer to Destruction in The Sandman series written by Neil Gaiman.