holocaust
IPA: hˈɑɫʌkɔst
noun
- (religion) An offering or sacrifice to a deity that is completely burned to ashes.
- (by extension)
- (religion, also figuratively) A complete or large offering or sacrifice.
- Complete destruction by fire; also, the thing so destroyed.
- (figuratively)
- Extensive destruction of a group of animals or (especially) people; a large-scale massacre or slaughter.
- (historical, strictly) The systematic mass murder (genocide) of six million Jews perpetrated by Nazi Germany shortly before and during World War II.
- (historical, broadly) The systematic mass murder (democide) of somewhere between eleven and fourteen million people, namely six million Jews and from five to eight million others (including Romanis, Slavs, homosexuals, and people with physical and mental disabilities), perpetrated by Nazi Germany shortly before and during World War II.
- Alternative letter-case form of Holocaust (“the systematic mass murder (democide or genocide) of Jews (and, more broadly, of disabled people, homosexuals, Romanis, Slavs, and others) perpetrated by Nazi Germany shortly before and during World War II”); hence, the state-sponsored mass murder of a particular group of people in society. [(historical, strictly) The systematic mass murder (genocide) of six million Jews perpetrated by Nazi Germany shortly before and during World War II.]
verb
- (religion, also figuratively) To sacrifice (chiefly an animal) to be completely burned.
- To destroy (something) completely, especially by fire.
- To subject (a group of people) to a holocaust (mass annihilation); to destroy en masse.
- Alternative letter-case form of holocaust (“subject to a mass annihilation; destroy en masse”). [(religion, also figuratively) To sacrifice (chiefly an animal) to be completely burned.]
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Examples of "holocaust" in Sentences
No Sentences Found for holocaust
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