# terrorism

Pronunciation: say "TE-ruh-ri-zuhm" /ˈtɛɹəɹɪzəm/

## Noun

1. The pursuit of political aims through unlawful acts of violence directed at people or property.
   - Simple: Violent attacks on people or property, against the law, used to force political change.
   - _Governments around the world have struggled to prevent terrorism._
   - _The bombing of the marketplace was condemned as an act of terrorism._
2. The use of intimidation or bullying tactics to control or coerce others.
   - Simple: Using threats or rough treatment to scare people into doing what you want.
   - _The manager ruled through sheer terrorism, and the staff dreaded every meeting._
   - _Their campaign of terrorism in the schoolyard left the younger children afraid to speak up._
3. The government's use of fear and intimidation as a system of control in Revolutionary France during the Reign of Terror, about 1793 to 1794.
   - Simple: A time in France long ago when the government used fear and killing to control people.
   - _Thousands were sent to the guillotine during the terrorism of those years._
   - _Under the terrorism, even loyal citizens feared a midnight knock at the door._

## Origin

This comes from French terrorisme, from terreur ("terror") plus -isme, analyzable in English as terror + -ism. The word first appears in English in 1795 in reference to the Jacobin radicals who ruled France during the Reign of Terror.

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