# genocide

Pronunciation: US say "JEN-uh-syd" /ˈd͡ʒɛnəsaɪd/; UK

## Noun

1. The systematic and deliberate destruction of a group of people, usually by killing large numbers of them, because of their ethnicity, religion, or nationality.
   - Simple: The planned killing or destruction of a large group of people because of their race, religion, or nationality.
   - _International tribunals were established to prosecute those responsible for the genocide._
   - _Historians continue to document how the genocide was planned and carried out._
2. The systematic killing of substantial numbers of people on grounds other than ethnicity, religion, or nationality.
   - Simple: The planned killing of large numbers of people for reasons other than their race or religion.
   - _Debate continues over whether the targeting of a political faction qualifies as genocide._
   - _The mass executions of landowners were later condemned as genocide._
3. The systematic suppression of a group's ideas, customs, or practices because of their cultural or ethnic origin; also known as culturicide.
   - Simple: The planned wiping out of a people's culture, language, or customs because of where they come from.
   - _Erasing a community's traditions and forbidding its rituals is a cultural form of genocide._
   - _The forced assimilation policies were later condemned as genocide against an indigenous culture._
5. In roguelike games, the elimination of an entire class of monsters by the player, often achieved through a special item or spell.
   - Simple: In some computer games, the killing of every monster of one kind by the player.
   - _A well-timed genocide can rid the entire level of those troublesome floating eyes._
   - _Veteran players debate whether spending a genocide on rats is ever worthwhile._

## Verb

4. To deliberately destroy or eliminate an entire group of people; to commit genocide against them.
   - Simple: To completely destroy or wipe out a whole group of people on purpose.
   - _The regime set out to genocide the population of the occupied region._
   - _Warlords sought to genocide a minority they had long persecuted._

## Origin

Coined by Raphael Lemkin, a lawyer of Polish-Jewish descent, in 1943 or 1944 in reference to the Armenian Genocide and the Jewish Holocaust. It combines geno-, from the stem of Ancient Greek γένος (génos, "race, kind"), with -cide ("killing, killer").

Source: DictionaryAI, https://dictionaryai.com/define/genocide (written from Wiktionary data, CC BY-SA 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).