Massacre

About

The word massacre is a loan from French terminology meaning butchery or carnage. It is generally used to describe a targeted mass killing of civilians by an armed group. A massacre can refer to an event of killing defenseless human beings or other animals. The term can also be used figuratively to refer to a one-sided exchange between armed groups. Other related terms with overlapping scope include war crime, pogrom, mass killing, mass murder, and extrajudicial killing. These various definitions and related terminology help establish the broader context in which the word massacre is understood.