massacre

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Dictionary:

massacre

  (măs'ə-kər) pronunciation
n.
  1. The act or an instance of killing a large number of humans indiscriminately and cruelly.
  2. The slaughter of a large number of animals.
  3. Informal. A severe defeat, as in a sports event.
tr.v., -cred (-kərd), -cring (-krĭng, -kər-ĭng), -cres.
  1. To kill indiscriminately and wantonly; slaughter.
  2. Informal. To defeat decisively.
  3. Informal. To botch; bungle: massacred the French language trying to order dinner.

[French, from Old French macecle, macecre, butchery, shambles.]

massacrer mas'sa·crer (-kər-ər, -krər) n.
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Thesaurus: massacre

noun

  1. The savage killing of many victims: bloodbath, bloodletting, bloodshed, butchery, carnage, pogrom, slaughter. See help/harm/harmless.
  2. The act of defeating or the condition of being defeated: beating, defeat, drubbing, overthrow, rout, thrashing, vanquishment. Informal trimming, whipping. Slang dusting, licking. See win/lose/recovery.

verb

  1. To kill savagely and indiscriminately: annihilate, butcher, decimate, slaughter. See crimes, help/harm/harmless, make/unmake.
  2. To render totally ineffective by decisive defeat: annihilate, crush, drub, overpower, overwhelm, smash, steamroller, thrash, trounce, vanquish. Informal wallop. Slang clobber, cream, shellac, smear. See win/lose/recovery.

 
Antonyms: massacre

v

Definition: kill
Antonyms: create, give birth


 
Word Tutor: massacre
pronunciation

IN BRIEF: The unnecessary and indiscriminate killing of human beings.

pronunciation Soap and education are not as sudden as a massacre, but they are more deadly in the long run. Training is everything. — Mark Twain (1835-1910)

 
Wikipedia: Massacre
Photographs of the My Lai massacre provoked world outrage and made it an international scandal.
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Photographs of the My Lai massacre provoked world outrage and made it an international scandal.

Massacre most commonly refers to individual events of deliberate and direct mass killing where the victims have no reasonable means of defense and pose no immediate physical threat to the assailants. If performed by members of the military or other government agents during a time of war, the action may qualify as a war crime. The deliberate mass killing of prisoners of war or civilians is often considered a massacre, however the term does not typically apply to the killing of armed combatants (except figuratively). Occasionally the term is also used to refer to the acts of a single individual rather than a group, such as the occasional labelling of school shootings as massacres. The term arose with the St. Bartholomew's Day massacre in France in 1572 and the word only acquired a general meaning latterly.

Men massacred in Lidice.
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Men massacred in Lidice.

In Guatemala, where massacres of Maya people were common during the Civil War, the Historical Clarification Commission agreed on a specific definition: "A massacre shall be considered the execution of five or more people, in the same place, as part of the same operation and whose victims were in an indefensible state." [1] In Colombia, the term is applied to the murder of at least half a dozen or more at one time.

The term "massacre" is sometimes used more widely to refer to individual, civil, or military mass killings where the deaths were not intentional, or the force used was excessive in comparison to a real or perceived threat. Examples include the Boston Massacre and the Kent State Massacre. Often, the application of the term to such killings has distinct political significance in shaping subsequent events, and the term is often used for propagandistic purposes.

References

  1. ^ Humberto Sequeira, Chapter 9 : The Guatemalan Commission for Historical Clarification: Database Representation,MAKING THE CASE: Investigating Large Scale Human Rights Violations Using Information Systems and Data Analysis

See also

External links


 
Translations: Translations for: Massacre

Dansk (Danish)
n. - massakre, nedslagtning, blodbad
v. tr. - massakrere, nedslagte, meje ned

Nederlands (Dutch)
uitmoorden, slachten, verminken (figuurlijk), moordpartij, afslachting (ook figuurlijk)

Français (French)
n. - (lit, fig) massacre
v. tr. - (lit) massacrer, (fig) démolir, massacrer (une langue)

Deutsch (German)
n. - Massaker
v. - massakrieren

Ελληνική (Greek)
n. - μακελειό, (ομαδική) σφαγή
v. - κατασφάζω, σφαγιάζω, κρεουργώ

Italiano (Italian)
massacrare, massacro

Português (Portuguese)
n. - massacre (m)
v. - massacrar

Русский (Russian)
резня, поражение, резать, устраивать резню

Español (Spanish)
n. - masacre, matanza
v. tr. - masacrar, hacer una matanza, matar en masa

Svenska (Swedish)
n. - massaker
v. - massakrera

中文(简体) (Chinese (Simplified))
大屠杀, 残杀

中文(繁體) (Chinese (Traditional))
n. - 大屠殺
v. tr. - 大屠殺, 殘殺

한국어 (Korean)
n. - 많은 사람을 죽임, 철저한 패배
v. tr. - 대량 학살을 하다, 다른 사람을 욕하다, 확실하게 이기다

日本語 (Japanese)
n. - 大虐殺, 完敗
v. - 虐殺する

العربيه (Arabic)
‏(الاسم) مذبحه (فعل) يقتل بلا رحمه‏

עברית (Hebrew)
n. - ‮טבח, פוגרום, חורבן (מדוברת)‬
v. tr. - ‮טבח, השמיד, הביס, החריב‬


 
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Dictionary. The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition Copyright © 2007, 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in 2007. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.  Read more
Thesaurus. Roget's II: The New Thesaurus, Third Edition by the Editors of the American Heritage® Dictionary Copyright © 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.  Read more
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