genocide
/ˈdʒɛnəsʌɪd
/noun [mass noun]
The deliberate killing of a large group of people, especially those of a particular nation or ethnic group: a campaign of genocide [count noun]: news of genocides went unreported...
- The answer to how people or states convince themselves to commit murder or genocide is complex.
- Churchill argues that the experiences of his people are nothing less than genocide.
- After we liberated Europe we did not come home to deny freedoms and practise genocide here.
Synonyms
racial killing, massacre, wholesale slaughter, mass slaughter, wholesale killing, indiscriminate killing;
mass murder, mass homicide, mass destruction, annihilation, extermination, elimination, liquidation, eradication, decimation, butchery, bloodbath, bloodletting;
pogrom, ethnic cleansing, holocaust, Shoah
literary slaying
rare battue, hecatomb
Origin
1940s: from Greek genos 'race' + -cide.