name, noun, slang ·2 syllables ·Moderate ·College level

Definitions

Noun

1. 1
   Any mass suicide or murder, especially one with religious or cultic overtones.

Proper Noun

1. 1
   A former settlement in northern Guyana founded by the Peoples Temple cult, and the site of an infamous mass murder-suicide in November 1978.
2. 2
   The Jonestown massacre itself. informal
3. 3
   Any of a number of other places in the English-speaking world.

Etymology

From Jones + town, after Reverend Jim Jones, leader of the Peoples Temple.

Related phrases

drink kool aid

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.