ethnic cleansing

noun

: the expulsion, imprisonment, or killing of an ethnic minority by a dominant majority in order to achieve ethnic homogeneity

Examples of ethnic cleansing in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web
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When the murder of 100,000 people, many of them women and children, is mentioned or denounced, or when someone dares to use terms such as genocide, ethnocide, ethnic cleansing or similar, most people choose to take issue with the characterization, quibbling over semantics. Uriel Kon september 2, Literary Hub, 2 Sep. 2025 Rights groups have accused Israel of carrying out ethnic cleansing and genocide in Gaza, charges that the Israeli government forcefully denies. Natasha Turak, CNBC, 1 Sep. 2025 This is a war that a former defense minister to Netanyahu has referred to as ethnic cleansing. Isaac Chotiner, New Yorker, 26 Aug. 2025 Meanwhile, Freedom House, the European Parliament, and many other institutions have called it ethnic cleansing. Artak Beglaryan, MSNBC Newsweek, 26 Aug. 2025 See All Example Sentences for ethnic cleansing

Word History

First Known Use

1991, in the meaning defined above

Time Traveler
The first known use of ethnic cleansing was in 1991

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Cite this Entry

“Ethnic cleansing.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/ethnic%20cleansing. Accessed 10 Sep. 2025.

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