English

Noun

genocide ‎(countable and uncountable, plural genocides)

1. The systematic killing of substantial numbers of people on the basis of their ethnicity, religion, political beliefs, social status, or other particularities.
   • November 1944 Axis Rule in Occupied Europe: Laws of Occupation - Analysis of Government - Proposals for Redress - chapter 9 - page 79

     For the German occupying authorities war thus appears to offer the most appropriate occasion for carrying out their policy of genocide.

   • year?

     A genocide will always be followed by the denial that it ever happened.

2. (by extension) The systematic suppression of ideas on the basis of cultural or ethnic origin; culturicide.
   • 1986, James Stuart Olson, Raymond Wilson, Native Americans in the Twentieth Century, ISBN 0252012852:

     Native Americans in the twentieth century are no longer a "vanishing race" or a silent minority. They have survived centuries of cultural genocide inflicted on them by non-Native Americans— both the well-meaning and the self-seeking— […]

Usage notes

Genocide was coined to mean, and is generally used in law to mean, the destruction of an ethnic group qua group, whether killing of all members of the group or other means, such as dispersing the group. In common usage, “genocide” is often used to mean “systematic mass killing”, whether or not the purpose is the destruction of a group or something else, such as terrorizing the group or killing a population without regard to group membership (democide).

Derived terms

Related terms

• cultural genocide
• culturicide
• democide
• ethnocide
• populicide

Translations

See also

• crime against humanity
• dehumanization
• democide
• ethnic cleansing
• holocaust, Holocaust
• Holodomor
• mass murder
• Porajmos
• pogrom
• Shoah
• war crime

Verb

genocide ‎(third-person singular simple present genocides, present participle genociding, simple past and past participle genocided)

1. To commit genocide (against); to eliminate (a group of people) completely.

References

1. ↑
2. ↑ Daniel Levy, The Holocaust and Memory in the Global Age (2006, ISBN 1592132766), page 91: "In 1943, Raphael Lemkin, a Polish Jew, coined the term "genocide" for the deliberate extermination of a people. Without a doubt, the Holocaust provided the occasion for Lemkin's attempts to warn the world of the systematic annihilation of particular groups, […] "
3. ↑ Hyde, Jennifer (2 December, 2008). "Polish Jew gave his life defining, fighting genocide". CNN. http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/europe/11/13/sbm.lemkin.profile/

Dutch

Etymology

Equivalent to geno +‎ -cide.

Noun

genocide f ‎(plural genocides, diminutive genocidetje n)

1. genocide

Synonyms

• volkerenmoord