English Reference

Word

slaughterhouse

Phoneticsslaugh·ter·house

US/ˈsɫɔtɝˌhaʊs/

UK/slˈɔːtəhˌaʊs/

Definition

n. a building where animals are killed for food. It is a place where meat is prepared for sale to the public.

n. a facility where animals are slaughtered for human consumption. Often used metaphorically to describe a place of intense violence or destruction.

Examples

“The cows were moved to the slaughterhouse early in the morning.”

“The local community protested the construction of a new slaughterhouse near the residential area.”

“The documentary provides a harrowing look at the industrial slaughterhouse, revealing the scale of the operations and the conditions within the facility.”

Examples

simple

“The cows were moved to the slaughterhouse early in the morning.”

contextual

“The local community protested the construction of a new slaughterhouse near the residential area.”

complex

“The documentary provides a harrowing look at the industrial slaughterhouse, revealing the scale of the operations and the conditions within the facility.”

Real-World Examples

“Slaughterhouses are places most people never want to go, and might seem like unlikely places to search for rare or endangered species.”
Phys.org · 25 Sept 2026
“Emily Thomas visits Tideford Abattoir, a slaughterhouse in the south of England to get an uncomfortably close up view of animals becoming food.”
BBC · 15 May 2025
“Demonstrators have demanded the closure of a slaughterhouse after secretive footage captured by an activist revealed the treatment of sheep, which the facility's management termed "appalling and distressing.”
BBC · 13 Mar 2025
“In the upcoming months, all Welsh slaughterhouses will be mandated to install CCTV cameras in areas where live animals are processed, as regulations approved by the Senedd take effect.”
BBC · 21 May 2024

Etymology

From slaughter + house.

Etymology adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.

Word family

manslaughterNounslaughterNounslaughterhouseNoun

In Literature

Cover for Slaughterhouse-Five

Cover: Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons — Jacket design by Paul Bacon.

Slaughterhouse-Five · 1969-03-01 · Anti-war fiction, black comedy

Author:
Kurt Vonnegut

Kurt Vonnegut’s 1969 masterpiece follows Billy Pilgrim, a soldier who survives the firebombing of Dresden during World War II. The title refers to the underground meat-packing cellar where Billy and other prisoners of war are sheltered during the attack. This setting serves as a stark symbol of the industrial-scale destruction and loss of life that the protagonist witnesses throughout the conflict.

This entry

Level
B2 · Upper Intermediate
Frequency
Occasional
Updated

Scan code

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English Reference