massacre

1 of 2

noun

mas·​sa·​cre ˈma-si-kər How to pronounce massacre (audio)
1
: the act or an instance of killing a number of usually helpless or unresisting human beings under circumstances of atrocity or cruelty
witnessed the massacre of a boatload of refugees
2
: a cruel or wanton (see wanton entry 1 sense 1a) murder
3
: a wholesale slaughter of animals
Residents engaged in a citywide cat massacre.
4
: an act of complete destruction
the author's massacre of traditional federalist presuppositionsR. G. McCloskey
the Puritan massacre of statues and picturesRobert Hughes

massacre

2 of 2

verb

massacred; massacring ˈma-si-k(ə-)riŋ How to pronounce massacre (audio)

transitive verb

1
: to kill by massacre
2
: mangle sense 2
words were misspelled and syntax massacredBice Clemow
massacrer noun

Examples of massacre in a Sentence

Noun The game turned out to be a complete massacre. the infamous massacre of more than 200 Sioux at Wounded Knee, South Dakota Verb Hundreds have been massacred in the uprising. The other team really massacred us on Saturday. He really massacred that song.
Recent Examples on the Web
Noun
In rehashing the timeline of Nov. 30, 2021, the day of the massacre, Keast turned the jury's attention to the troubling drawing. Gina Kaufman, Detroit Free Press, 8 Mar. 2024 Uvalde report Families of the victims of the May 2022 school massacre in Uvalde, Texas, are furious after an independent investigator tasked with probing the police response cleared all local officers of wrongdoing. Aj Willingham, CNN, 8 Mar. 2024 Evidence suggests Israel played a role in these massacres and was indirectly responsible for them. Mireille Rebeiz, The Conversation, 7 Mar. 2024 Six years after the massacre, Clemente Rodríguez and his wife, Luz María Telumbre, received a visit at their home in Tixtla from Gómez Trejo, Encinas, and two members of Centro Prodh. Alma Guillermoprieto, The New Yorker, 4 Mar. 2024 In what Palestinian leaders are calling Israel's flour massacre, people had swarmed the trucks in the desperate hope of getting a sack of flour, only to be killed. CBS News, 3 Mar. 2024 Viscerally depicting the psychic gulf between methods of massacre and their creators is not simple in a medium like film. Alissa Wilkinson, New York Times, 3 Mar. 2024 Prison massacres have become more frequent in recent years, leading to the deaths of hundreds of people, some of whom were found dismembered. Cnn.com Wire Service, The Mercury News, 20 Feb. 2024 The city’s poor were buried with no ceremony, and many of the 19 victims of the city’s disgraceful 1871 massacre of Chinese residents were originally buried here. Patt Morrison, Los Angeles Times, 27 Feb. 2024
Verb
In response, angry residents launched a sit-in at a clock tower; regime soldiers massacred them, leaving the asphalt streaked with blood. Anand Gopal, The New Yorker, 11 Mar. 2024 At the Star Ballroom Dance Studio in Monterey Park, where 11 people were massacred a year ago in a shooting rampage. Steve Lopez, Los Angeles Times, 2 Feb. 2024 Violence first broke out over control of the holy sites in Jerusalem and spread to cities including Hebron and Safed, where Arabs massacred Jews. Emily Bazelon, New York Times, 1 Feb. 2024 Paiute and Shoshone tribes also say the mine is being built on sacred land at Thacker Pass where more than two dozen of their ancestors were massacred by U.S. troops in 1865. Scott Sonner, Fortune, 9 Feb. 2024 This all takes place against the backdrop of a brutal 39th Central Asian War, in which five of the seven greatest robots were called upon to massacre their fellow robots. Ars Staff, Ars Technica, 29 Dec. 2023 That summer, the town’s own Polish inhabitants (not the occupying Nazis) massacred its 1,600 Jewish citizens, locking most of them inside a barn and burning them alive. Sara Holdren, Vulture, 25 Jan. 2024 After the government quashed the protests and massacred the protesters, Mr. Jiang was removed from the university presidency. Joy Dong, New York Times, 27 Dec. 2023 Unlike Martinique, Algeria had recently been scarred by violence, most notably in 1945, when, after a clash with nationalists, the French massacred thousands of Algerians. The New Yorker, 24 Jan. 2024

These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'massacre.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

Word History

Etymology

Noun and Verb

Middle French

First Known Use

Noun

circa 1578, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Verb

1581, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Time Traveler
The first known use of massacre was circa 1578

Dictionary Entries Near massacre

Cite this Entry

“Massacre.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/massacre. Accessed 19 Mar. 2024.

Kids Definition

massacre

1 of 2 verb
mas·​sa·​cre ˈmas-i-kər How to pronounce massacre (audio)
massacred; massacring
-k(ə-)riŋ
: to kill in a massacre : slaughter
massacrer
-i-kər-ər
-i-krər
noun

massacre

2 of 2 noun
: the violent and cruel killing of a number of persons

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