Main Entry: ¹mas·sa·cre

Pronunciation: \ˈma-si-kər\

Function: noun

Etymology: Middle French

Date: circa 1578

1 : the act or an instance of killing a number of usually helpless or unresisting human beings under circumstances of atrocity or cruelty
2 : a cruel or wanton murder
3 : a wholesale slaughter of animals
4 : an act of complete destruction <the author's massacre of traditional federalist presuppositions — R. G. McCloskey>