Genocide

//ˈd͡ʒɛnəsaɪd// noun, verb

noun, verb ·Common ·High school level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    The systematic and deliberate destruction of a group of people; typically by killing substantial numbers of them, on the basis of their ethnicity, religion, or nationality. countable, uncountable

    "A genocide will always be followed by the denial that it ever happened."

  2. 2
    systematic killing of a racial or cultural group wordnet
  3. 3
    The systematic killing of substantial numbers of people on other grounds. broadly, countable, uncountable
  4. 4
    The systematic suppression of ideas or practices on the basis of cultural or ethnic origin; culturicide. broadly, countable, uncountable

    "Native Americans in the twentieth century are no longer a "vanishing race" or a silent minority. They have survived centuries of cultural genocide inflicted on them by non-Native Americans— both the well-meaning and the self-seeking— […]"

  5. 5
    The elimination of an entire class of monsters by the player. countable, uncountable

    "I used genocide in my first ascension, but have been genocideless ever since. Makes the game much more interesting, but then again, if one hasn't ascended yet, it will be interesting anyway."

Verb
  1. 1
    To commit genocide (against); to eliminate (a group of people) completely. transitive

    "Even though the Soviet constitution and that of the Ukrainian SSR contain provisions guaranteeing freedom of religion and other fundamental liberties, the Soviet government genocided the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church in the 1930's …"

Synonyms

All synonyms
aborticideatrocitybloodbathbloodshedbreachcarnage

Example

More examples

"The victims of the genocide were buried in mass graves spread over 25 square kilometers."

Etymology

Coined by lawyer of Polish-Jewish descent Raphael Lemkin in 1943 or 1944 in reference to the Armenian Genocide (then known by other names; see: Terminology of the Armenian genocide), massacres of Assyrians (such as the Simele massacre and Seyfo) and the Jewish Holocaust. From the stem of Ancient Greek γένος (génos, “race, kind”) (cognate with Latin gēns (“tribe, clan”), whence genus), corresponding to geno- + -cide (“killing, killer”). Piecewise doublet of gendercide. Compare genticide.

Related phrases

Armenian genocideGenocide Joeauto-genocidecounter-genocidecultural genocidehot genocidewhite genocidecrime against humanitycultural genocideethnic cleansingmass murdersocial status

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