massacre
/ˈmæs.ə.kə(ɹ)/
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 3.91 in modern English
12
Scrabble Score
8
Letters
3
Syllables
6
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
The killing of a considerable number (usually limited to people) where little or no resistance can be made, with indiscriminate violence, without necessity, and/or contrary to civilized norms.
Countable; Uncountable
verb
To kill in considerable numbers where little or no resistance can be made, with indiscriminate violence, without necessity, and contrary to civilized norms. (Often limited to the killing of human beings.)
Transitive verb
Example Sentences
- "St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre"
- "Massacres of Diyarbekir"
- "St. Valentine's Day Massacre"
- "Amritsar Massacre"
- "I'll find a day to massacre them all, And raze their faction and their family"
- "The massacre that ripped apart 17 families in Parkland, Florida, five years ago on Valentine’s Day ignited a wave of student-led protests and bipartisan legislation to combat the plague of school shootings devastating the country."
Etymology
1580, from Middle French massacre, from Old French macacre, marcacre, macecre, macecle (“slaughterhouse, butchery”), usually thought to be deverbal from Old French macecrer, macecler (“to slaughter”), though the noun seems to be attested somewhat earlier. It is also found in Medieval Latin mazacrium (“massacre, slaughter, killing”, also “the head of a newly killed stag”). Further origin disputed: * From Latin macellum (“butcher shop”). * From Vulgar Latin *matteuculāre, from *matteuca (cf. massue), from Late Latin mattea, mattia, from Latin mateola. * From Middle Low German *matskelen (“to massacre”) (compare German metzeln (“massacre”)), frequentative of matsken, matzgen (“to cut, hew”), from Proto-West Germanic *maitan, from Proto-Germanic *maitaną (“to cut”), from Proto-Indo-European *mey- (“small”). Akin to Old High German meizan (“to cut”) among others. * Note also Arabic مَجْزَرَة (majzara), originally “spot where animals are slaughtered”, now also “massacre”, and in Maghrebi Arabic “slaughterhouse”. Derived from جَزَرَ (jazara, “to cut, slaughter”).
Origin
Word Breakdown
- Root: massacre, macacre, macecrer, mazacrium, macellum, -