ecocide means the complete destruction of an ecosystem due to human activities, such as due to exploitation of resources, nuclear warfare, or the dumping of harmful chemicals. It carries an Arena rating of 1547, earned across 33 head-to-head judged battles.
Among words judged in Lexicurio's Arena, ecocide ranks #133 of 17,131 for Scariest Words, #317 of 17,128 for Most Ponderous Words, #422 of 17,127 for Words That Escaped Their Books, #940 of 17,124 for Most Sublime Words.
ecocide is pronounced /ˈiːkəʊsaɪd/.
Why “ecocide” is a great word
The deliberate or negligent mass destruction of the natural environment by human action. From the Greek *oikos* ("house, dwelling, environment") and the Latin *-cidium* ("a killing"), from *caedere* ("to cut, strike, kill"), coined in 1969 by the American plant biologist Arthur Galston. Unlike "pollution," which denotes a contaminating presence that may be mitigated, or "deforestation," which is a specific act of clearing, ecocide describes the terminal unraveling of an entire living system. It is the silent miles of coral bleaching bone-white, the naked red earth where a rainforest once breathed, and the ghostly stillness of a river that has forgotten the shape of fish—the final accounting of a dominion that forgot it was also a home.
Etymology
From eco- + -cide. First used in 1969 by the American plant biologist Arthur Galston to refer to the willful destruction of the environment with Agent Orange.
noun
- The complete destruction of an ecosystem due to human activities, such as due to exploitation of resources, nuclear warfare, or the dumping of harmful chemicals.e.g.“Two common terms used to characterize injuries to the environment include “geocide” and “ecocide,” terms particularly applicable to rain forest damage because it is irreparable.” — [1997, Virginia Journal of International Law, volume 38, page 377:
Definitions & examples from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0).
Words closest in meaning
By meaning, not spelling — each word's AI semantic fingerprint, nearest first.
- cosmocide 73% match — The destruction of planet Earth, especially as a result of human activity. vs ecocide →
- geocide 73% match — The destruction of the earth, its ecosystems, or some part thereof, due to human activity. vs ecocide →
- ecocidal 69% match — Destructive of the environment. vs ecocide →
- speciocide 65% match — The destruction of a species. vs ecocide →
- terracide 63% match — The destruction of a planet or of natural ecosystems. vs ecocide →
- ecocatastrophe 63% match — An ecological catastrophe, especially a man-made disaster that affects the environment vs ecocide →
- omnicide 62% match — The total extinction of the human species as a result of human action, most commonly through nuclear warfare, but also through other means such as global anthropogenic ecological catastrophe. vs ecocide →
- humanicide 61% match — The destruction of the human race. vs ecocide →