The savage and excessive killing of many people.

synonyms: butchery, carnage, mass murder, slaughter.

Roget 361: killing etc. v.; homicide, manslaughter, murder, assassination, trucidation^†, iccusion^†; effusion of blood; blood, blood shed; gore, slaughter, carnage, butchery; battue^†.    massacre; fusillade, noyade^†; thuggery, Thuggism^†.    deathblow, finishing stroke, coup de grace, quietus; execution etc. (capital punishment) 972; judicial murder; martyrdom.    butcher, slayer, murderer, Cain, assassin, terrorist, cutthroat, garroter, bravo, Thug, Moloch, matador, sabreur^†; guet-a-pens; gallows, executioner etc. (punishment) 975; man-eater, apache^†, hatchet man [U.S.], highbinder [U.S.].    regicide, parricide, matricide, fratricide, infanticide, feticide, foeticide^†, uxoricide^†, vaticide^†.    suicide, felo de se^†, hara-kiri, suttee, Juggernath^†; immolation, auto da fe, holocaust.    suffocation, strangulation, garrote; hanging etc. v.; lapidation^†.    deadly weapon etc. (arms) 727; Aceldama^†.    [Destruction of animals] slaughtering; phthisozoics^†; sport, sporting; the chase, venery; hunting, coursing, shooting, fishing; pig-sticking; sportsman, huntsman, fisherman; hunter, Nimrod; slaughterhouse, meat packing plant, shambles, abattoir.    fatal accident, violent death, casualty.    ... show more

Dutch: massamoord, bloedbad

Kill a large number of people indiscriminately:
— The Hutus massacred the Tutsis in Rwanda.

synonyms: mow down, slaughter.

Roget 361: kill, put to death, slay, shed blood; murder, assassinate, butcher, slaughter, victimize, immolate; massacre; take away life, deprive of life; make away with, put an end to; despatch, dispatch; burke, settle, do for.    strangle, garrote, hang, throttle, choke, stifle, suffocate, stop the breath, smother, asphyxiate, drown.    saber; cut down, cut to pieces, cut the throat; jugulate^†; stab, run through the body, bayonet, eviscerate; put to the sword, put to the edge of the sword.    shoot dead; blow one's brains out; brain, knock on the head; stone, lapidate^†; give a deathblow; deal a deathblow; give a quietus, give a coupe de grace.    behead, bowstring, electrocute, gas etc. (execute) 972.    hunt, shoot etc. n.. cut off, nip in the bud, launch into eternity, send to one's last account, sign one's death warrant, strike the death knell of.    give no quarter, pour out blood like water; decimate; run amuck; wade knee deep in blood, imbrue one's hands in blood.    die a violent death, welter in one's blood; dash out one's brains, blow out one's brains; commit suicide; kill oneself, make away with oneself, put an end to oneself, put an end to it all.    ... show more