genocide means the systematic and deliberate destruction of a group of people; typically by killing substantial numbers of them, on the basis of their ethnicity, religion, nationality, or similar grounds.
genocide is pronounced /ˈd͡ʒɛnəsaɪd/.
Why “genocide” is a great word
The deliberate and systematic destruction, in whole or in part, of a national, ethnic, racial, or religious group. Coined in 1944 by Raphael Lemkin from the Greek genos ("race, kind") and the Latin -cide ("killing"). Unlike “massacre,” which denotes a sudden, often indiscriminate slaughter, or “ethnic cleansing,” which seeks expulsion over absolute annihilation, genocide is architecture: the bureaucratic filing of forms, the scheduled trains, the meticulous records kept by hands that do not tremble. It is the cold arithmetic of erasure: a childhood lullaby unlearned, a family recipe lost with its last cook, a village cemetery plowed under and sown with wheat—the land forgetting before the world does.
noun
- The systematic and deliberate destruction of a group of people; typically by killing substantial numbers of them, on the basis of their ethnicity, religion, nationality, or similar grounds.e.g.“A genocide will always be followed by the denial that it ever happened.”
- The systematic suppression of ideas or practices on the basis of cultural or ethnic origin; culturicide.e.g.“linguistic genocide”
- The elimination of an entire class of monsters by the player in roguelikes.e.g.“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
- To commit genocide (against); to eliminate (a group of people) completely.
Words closest in meaning
By meaning, not spelling — each word's AI semantic fingerprint, nearest first.
- ethnocide 91% match — The deliberate and systematic destruction of an ethnic group, accomplished either by destroying the members of the group (genocide) or by destroying its cultural identity (culturicide). vs genocide →
- policide 89% match — The intentional destruction of a nation. vs genocide →
- indigenocide 88% match — The systematic or targeted destruction of the indigenous people(s) of a place, especially Australia. vs genocide →
- religiocide 88% match — The destruction of a religion. vs genocide →
- speciecide 88% match — The systematic extermination of a species. vs genocide →
- gynocide 88% match — The killing of women and girls, especially considered as a social phenomenon. vs genocide →
- extermination 88% match — The act of exterminating; total destruction or eradication. vs genocide →
- culturicide 88% match — The systematic destruction of a culture, particularly one unique to a specific ethnicity, or a political, religious, or social group. vs genocide →