genocide
/ˈd͡ʒɛnəsaɪd/
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: 3.91 in modern English
12
Scrabble Score
8
Letters
3
Syllables
7
Unique Chars
Meaning
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.
Countable; Uncountable
noun
The systematic suppression of ideas or practices on the basis of cultural or ethnic origin; culturicide.
Countable; Uncountable
noun
The elimination of an entire class of monsters by the player in roguelikes.
Countable; Uncountable
Example Sentences
- "A genocide will always be followed by the denial that it ever happened."
- "For the German occupying authorities war thus appears to offer the most appropriate occasion for carrying out their policy of genocide."
- "Shaddam IV: I want fifty legion of Sardaukar on Arrakis at once! Subordinate: Fifty legions? That's our entire reserves as well. Shaddam IV: This is genocide: the deliberate and systematic destruction of all life on Arrakis!"
- "Though most of the cases here cover European encounters with non-Europeans, it is not the intention of the book to give the impression that genocide is a function of European colonialism and imperialism alone."
- "Incorporating a global-comparative perspective on the genocides of the last half millennium has enabled important advances in the understanding of events central to the genocide studies field – such as the process of Ottoman imperial dissolution, reciprocal genocidal killing (during the “Unweaving” in the Balkans), and complex international jockeying that factored into the massive anti-Christian slaughters in Anatolia in 1915 and thereafter."
- "A genocide denier is an apologist for the next genocide. […] Mr. Handke is the Bob Dylan of genocide apologists."
Etymology
Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *ǵenh₁- Proto-Indo-European *-os Proto-Indo-European *ǵénh₁os Proto-Hellenic *génos Ancient Greek γένος (génos) Proto-Indo-European *kh₂eyd- Proto-Indo-European *-eti Proto-Indo-European *kh₂éydeti Proto-Italic *kaidō Latin caedō Proto-Indo-European *-h₂ Proto-Indo-European *-eh₂ Proto-Italic *-ā Latin -a Latin -cīda Proto-Indo-European *-(i)yós Proto-Italic *-ijos Proto-Italic *-ios Old Latin -ios Latin -iusnom. Latin -ium Latin -cīdiumder. Middle French -cidebor. English -cide English genocide From the stem of Ancient Greek γένος (génos, “race, kind”) (cognate with Latin gēns (“tribe, clan”), whence genus), corresponding to geno- + -cide (“killing”). Piecewise doublet of gendercide. Compare genticide. Coined by Polish Jewish lawyer Raphael Lemkin in 1943 or 1944 in reference to the Armenian Genocide (then known by other names; for more information, see Terminology of the Armenian genocide on Wikipedia), massacres of Assyrians (such as the Simele massacre and Seyfo) and the Jewish Holocaust.
Origin
Word Breakdown
- Root: γένος
Usage
Subject
Wiktionary places this term in Law.
Inflected Forms
Derived Forms
Phrases
Armenian genocide
auto-genocide
counter-genocide
cultural genocide
Genocide Joe
hot genocide
white genocide
mass murder