internecine
adjective
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Internecine comes from the Latin internecinus ("fought to the death" or "destructive"), which traces to the verb "necare" ("to kill") and the prefix inter-. ("Inter-" usually means "between" or "mutual" in Latin, but it can also indicate the completion of an action.) Internecine meant "deadly" when it appeared in English in the early 17th century, but when Samuel Johnson entered it in his dictionary almost a century later, he was apparently misled by "inter-" and defined the word as "endeavouring mutual destruction." Johnson's definition was carried into later dictionaries, and before long his sense was the dominant meaning of the word. "Internecine" developed the association with internal group conflict in the 20th century, and that's the most common sense today.
Examples of internecine in a Sentence
Ben Smith, semafor.com, 24 Oct. 2025
Forgery is a really complicated, even internecine, phenomenon.
—JSTOR Daily, 16 Oct. 2025
While it is largely remembered today as an Arab revolt against British rule, it was also marked by internecine violence, with Husseini using it as an opportunity to consolidate control and murder those who threatened his rule.
—Sean Durns, The Washington Examiner, 12 Sep. 2025
Shortly after the president joined Israel’s ongoing attacks on Iranian military targets, the load-bearing pillars of Trump’s electoral base crumbled — perhaps irreparably — internecine political combat spilled into the public square, and Trump’s hold over the GOP began to slip.
Doesn’t ring a bell?
—Noah Rothman, National Review, 10 July 2025
See All Example Sentences for internecine
Cite this Entry
“Internecine.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/internecine. Accessed 4 Nov. 2025.
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internecine
adjective
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