extermination
/ɪkˌstəːmɪˈneɪʃ(ə)n
/ /ɛkˌstəːmɪˈneɪʃ(ə)n/noun [mass noun]
1Killing, especially of a whole group of people or animals: the near extermination of the buffalo herds...
- Sachsenhausen was primarily a camp for political opponents of the Nazis, not an extermination camp for the Jews.
- A sufficiently strong lure would draw bands over many miles to a central location for easy en masse extermination.
- In Whitewash, Reynolds does not defend his views about either genocide or extermination.
Synonyms
killing, murder, assassination, putting to death, doing to death, execution, dispatch, slaughter, massacre, genocide;
taking of someone's life, homicide, manslaughter, liquidation, elimination, destruction, eradication, annihilation, wiping out, extinction
literary slaying
1.1Complete destruction.Only the timely arrival of some Peigans prevented the complete extermination of the camp....
- In the final two chapters, Koplow makes his final case against the extermination of the remaining smallpox stockpiles.
- Pacification was the CIA's reader-friendly word for its extermination of civilian opposition to the US war machine in South Vietnam.