Words / C1

JEN-uh-syd/ˈdʒenəsaɪd/

Genocide is the crime of intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial, or religious group. Massacre is mass killing without that legal definition; ethnic cleansing is a related, not identical, term; a hard exam is not genocide. Do not use the word as campus slang.

Meaning

The crime of trying to destroy a national, ethnic, racial, or religious group.

Examples

• “Genocide is a legal finding by a competent body, not a campus metaphor for a strict rubric.”
• “Massacre is mass killing. War crime is a wider legal umbrella. Atrocity is moral language. A rubric is an assessment tool. Scale and law matter. Keep the word for the crime; keep the module in the handbook.”

Good to know

Intent to destroy a protected group (law). Contrast: massacre; war crime (wider). Not a metaphor for a strict test.

Near in meaning

massacre

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