specicide means the elimination of an entire species. It carries an Arena rating of 1476, earned across 89 head-to-head judged battles.
Among words judged in Lexicurio's Arena, specicide ranks #191 of 17,131 for Scariest Words, #679 of 17,128 for Most Ponderous Words, #842 of 17,138 for Most Incisive Words, #1,818 of 17,124 for Most Sublime Words.
Why “specicide” is a great word
SPECICIDE — [Noun] The deliberate act of causing the extinction of an entire biological species. From species (from Latin speciēs, "appearance, kind, type") + -cide (from Latin -cīdium, "killing," and -cīda, "killer"). Unlike genocide, which confines its horror to human groups, or extirpation, which denotes a local erasure, specicide is the absolute, planetary termination of a unique lineage. It is the final fossilizing footprint on an emptied riverbank, the last seed turning to dust in a sealed vault, and the empty sky where a flock once darkened the sun—the irrevocable subtraction of a thread from the tapestry of being.
Etymology
From species + -cide.
noun
- The elimination of an entire species.
Definitions & examples from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0).
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