Library / English Dictionary

MASSACRE

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 I. (noun) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

The savage and excessive killing of many people

Synonyms:

butchery; carnage; mass murder; massacre; slaughter

Classified under:

Nouns denoting acts or actions

Hypernyms ("massacre" is a kind of...):

execution; murder; slaying (unlawful premeditated killing of a human being by a human being)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "massacre"):

battue; bloodbath; bloodletting; bloodshed (indiscriminate slaughter)

Instance hyponyms:

Alamo (a siege and massacre at a mission in San Antonio in 1836; Mexican forces under Santa Anna besieged and massacred American rebels who were fighting to make Texas independent of Mexico)

Battle of Little Bighorn; Battle of the Little Bighorn; Custer's Last Stand; Little Bighorn (a battle in Montana near the Little Bighorn River between United States cavalry under Custer and several groups of Native Americans (1876); Custer was pursuing Sioux led by Sitting Bull; Custer underestimated the size of the Sioux forces (which were supported by Cheyenne warriors) and was killed along with all his command)

Derivation:

massacre (kill a large number of people indiscriminately)

 II. (verb) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

Kill a large number of people indiscriminately

Example:

The Hutus massacred the Tutsis in Rwanda

Synonyms:

massacre; mow down; slaughter

Classified under:

Verbs of size, temperature change, intensifying, etc.

Hypernyms (to "massacre" is one way to...):

kill (cause to die; put to death, usually intentionally or knowingly)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s somebody

Sentence example:

They want to massacre the prisoners

Derivation:

massacre (the savage and excessive killing of many people)

Credits