pogrom means A riot aimed at persecution or massacre of a particular ethnic or religious group, usually Jews. Lexicurio rates it Rare gem — a strength score of 83 out of 100.
pogrom is pronounced /ˈpɒɡɹəm/.
Why “pogrom” is a great word
POGROM — [Noun] An organized, often officially tolerated, massacre or violent persecution of a particular ethnic or religious group, especially Jews. From Yiddish פּאָגראָם (pogrom), from Russian погро́м (pogróm, "devastation, destruction"), from по- (po-, "thoroughly") + гром (grom, "thunder"). First attested in English in 1882. Unlike a riot, a chaotic spasm of the crowd, or genocide, the systematic erasure of a people, a pogrom is a localized, sanctioned storm. It is the splintering of a shop-front under organized blows, the scent of burning timber from a house of prayer, and the heavy, deliberate tread of boots on cobbles at dusk—a human thunder, made policy, that arrives not from the sky but from one’s neighbors.
Etymology
Borrowed from Yiddish פּאָגראָם (pogrom), from Russian погро́м (pogróm).
noun
- A riot aimed at persecution or massacre of a particular ethnic or religious group, usually Jews.
- An antisemitic hate crime with a large death toll, irrespective of the number of perpetrators.“More strikingly, when blood ran on the streets of Pittsburgh after the pogrom at the Tree of Life Synagogue in 2018, Trump did not meet with community leaders of the Pittsburgh Jewish community, nor the family members of the dead, nor even the city’s mayor. He spoke with Ron Dermer, Israel’s ambassador to the United States.”
verb
- To persecute or massacre a particular group of people.