Genticide
noun ·Rare ·Advanced level
Definitions
- 1 The killing of a race or nation of people; the slaughter of an ethnic group; a genocide. rare
"When we call unjust war murder, we give it too mild a name. It is wholesale murder; it is what might be denominated genticide, or the murder of nations."
- 2 The killing of a kinsman or kinswoman; the murder of a blood relative. rare
"Thus the hatred of the kin group was the highest penalty for genticide or the murder of a clansman: […]"
Synonyms
All synonymsExample
More examples"When we call unjust war murder, we give it too mild a name. It is wholesale murder; it is what might be denominated genticide, or the murder of nations."
Etymology
From the Latin gēns (“a race, nation, people; a clan, family”, oblique stem: gent-) + -cide (“a killing of”). The combination represents a hypothetical Latin etymon of the form *genticīdium, regularly formed from gēns + -cīdium. Compare genericide and genocide.
Related phrases
More for "genticide"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.