infanticide
/ɪnˈfæntɪsaɪd/
infanticide means the murder of an infant. It carries an Arena rating of 1356, earned across 3 head-to-head judged battles.
Among words judged in Lexicurio's Arena, infanticide ranks #1,642 of 14,297 for Words That Escaped Their Books, #2,279 of 14,340 for Most Vivid Words, #2,309 of 14,431 for Most Betrayed by Its Sound, #2,319 of 14,444 for Most Exacting Words.
infanticide is pronounced /ɪnˈfæntɪsaɪd/.
Why “infanticide” is a great word
The deliberate killing of a very young child, typically by a parent. From French *infanticide*, from Late Latin *infanticīdium*, from Latin *īnfant-* ("infant") + *-cīdium* ("killing, act of killing"), first attested in English in the 1650s. Unlike "filicide" (which names the killing of one's own child at any age) or "homicide" (the broad act of killing a person), infanticide carries the specific, suffocating weight of a life ended before it has found a voice. It is the exposed infant on a hillside, the pillow pressed too long, the small grave dug in shadow—the primal contradiction of creation turned against itself, a crime so ancient it appears in Roman law, yet so persistent nations still draft statutes against it.
Etymology
From French infanticide, from Latin īnfanticīdium. By surface analysis, infant + -i- + -cide.
noun
- The murder of an infant.“PROLICIDE […] Admits of two divisions, fœticide or criminal abortion and infanticide or the destruction of the new born infant.”
- The murder of a child by a parent; filicide.
- The criminal offence of killing of a newborn, committed by its mother while psychologically disturbed by the effects of childbirth or lactation, not regarded as murder.
- The killing of a young, immature animal by a mature adult of the same species.
- The murderer of a child: a person who has committed infanticide.
Words closest in meaning
By meaning, not spelling — each word's AI semantic fingerprint, nearest first.