massacre
n. countablen. The violent killing of a large number of people, especially people who cannot defend themselves. It's a word used for very brutal and shocking events.
n. The indiscriminate and brutal killing of a large number of people, particularly those who are defenseless.
The film depicts the brutal massacre of civilians.
Historians still debate the exact number of victims in the massacre that occurred during the final days of the war.
The general's refusal to acknowledge the event as a massacre, preferring the sterile term 'incident', was seen by the international community as a profound moral failure.
1580, from Middle French massacre, from Old French macacre, marcacre, macecre, macecle (“slaughterhouse, butchery”), usually thought to be deverbal from Old French macecrer, macecler (“to slaughter”), though the noun seems to be attested somewhat earlier. It is also found in Medieval Latin mazacrium (“massacre, slaughter, killing”, also “the head of a newly killed stag”). Further origin disputed: * From Latin macellum (“butcher shop”). From Vulgar Latin matteuculāre, from *matteuca (cf. massue), from Late Latin mattea, mattia, from Latin mateola. From Middle Low German matskelen (“to massacre”) (compare German metzeln (“massacre”)), frequentative of matsken, matzgen (“to cut, hew”), from Proto-West Germanic maitan, from Proto-Germanic maitaną (“to cut”), from Proto-Indo-European *mei- (“small”). Akin to Old High German meizan (“to cut”) among others. * Note also Arabic مَجْزَرَة (majzara), originally “spot where animals are slaughtered”, now also “massacre”, and in Maghrebi Arabic “slaughterhouse”. Derived from جَزَرَ (jazara, “to cut, slaughter”).