xenocide · noun — the killing of a stranger or foreigner. It carries an Arena rating of 1464, earned across 33 head-to-head judged battles.
Definition from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0).
Among words judged in Lexicurio's Arena, xenocide ranks #244 of 17,171 for Scariest Words, #567 of 17,163 for Most Sublime Words, #746 of 17,130 for Most Ponderous Words, #1,829 of 17,176 for Most Incisive Words.
xenocide is pronounced /ˈzɛnəsaɪd/.
Why “xenocide” is a great word
Xenocide is the deliberate and systematic annihilation of an entire alien species. The term derives from the combining form xeno- (from Greek xenos, meaning 'stranger, foreigner, alien') and -cide (from Latin -cidium, a killing, from caedere, 'to cut, kill'), a stark assembly of parts born of speculative thought. Unlike genocide, which denotes the destruction of a human group, or extermination, which suggests the clearing of vermin, xenocide carries the chilling, specific gravity of erasing a wholly foreign form of sentience from the universe. It is the cold calculus of a sterilizing beam scouring a living world to bedrock, the final, permanent stillness settling over a once-bustling extraterrestrial hive, and the scent of alien biochemistry dissipating forever into the vacuum—the ultimate failure of imagination, where difference is resolved only into dust, and the cosmos is diminished by one entire branch of existence.
❧ Essay by Lexicurio’s AI · definition, etymology & citations from published sources
Etymology
From xeno- + -cide.
noun
- The killing of a stranger or foreigner.
- The genocide of an entire alien species.e.g.“The age that began with one xenocide attempted had now ended with other xenocides prevented or, at least, postponed.” — 1996, Orson Scott Card, Children of the Mind:
- The intentional killing of an entire foreign (plant or animal) species.
Definitions & examples from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0).
Words closest in meaning
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