Nepoticide

//nəˈpɒtɪsaɪd// noun

noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    The killing of one's own nephew. countable, uncountable

    "The new accusation brought by Urban against Manfred of murdering his sister-in-law's embassador – it may be observed that, tacitly, he acquits him of parricide, fratricide, and nepoticide – requires a little explanation."

  2. 2
    One who kills his or her own nephew. countable

    "The fact that the Yongle emperor was therefore a usurper, regicide and nepoticide (nephew-killer) made compiling the Veritable Record – or official history – of his reign a most dangerous scholarly post. The official given this ticklish task managed to survive several drafts, finally producing one that pleased his master as it omitted the dead nephew's reign altogether."

Example

More examples

"Avunculicide is more common in mythology than nepoticide."

Etymology

From Latin nepōs, nepōtis (“nephew”) + -cide.

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