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

The violence led to large numbers of people fleeing the country, particularly ethnic minorities like the Rohingya, who have been denied citizenship and faced aggressive ethnic cleansing efforts from the military government, which views them as a threat to nationalist identity. —Reia Li, AZCentral.com, 7 July 2025

Ushering in nothing short of a police state intent on ethnic cleansing, Trump’s proposed 2026 budget authorizes funding for detention complexes greater than the budget for the federal prison system and detention complex capacity that will allow the government to detain at least 116,000 at once. —Bob Kustra, Chicago Tribune, 6 July 2025

The relocation plan is seen by Jordan as an existential threat to the small kingdom, a death knell for hopes of an eventual Palestinian state and tantamount to complicity in ethnic cleansing of Gaza. —Jane Arraf, NPR, 20 June 2025

Would Israel now suffice with the attack on Iran to let go of Gaza or, on the contrary, use the defeat of the axis of resistance to conclude the occupation of Gaza and the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians? —Isaac Chotiner, New Yorker, 13 June 2025

Word History

First Known Use

1991, in the meaning defined above