Autocide

noun

noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    Control of a pest through propagation of sterile males. countable, uncountable

    "Generally, autocide is most effective when applied to restricted populations (islands, etc.), but can be effective on parts of continents."

  2. 2
    An act of suicide committed by crashing a car. countable, uncountable

    ""Autocide is becoming the second most popular method for older teens to commit suicide," she said."

  3. 3
    A substance produced by a bacterium that is fatal to that bacterium. countable, uncountable

    "Five different autocides have been isolated from Myxococcus xanthus."

  4. 4
    An act of killing someone with an automobile. countable, uncountable
  5. 5
    A suicidal person. countable, obsolete, rare, uncountable

Example

More examples

"Generally, autocide is most effective when applied to restricted populations (islands, etc.), but can be effective on parts of continents."

Etymology

Etymology 1

From auto- + -cide.

Etymology 2

From auto + -cide; see auto (“automobile”).

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