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
Jonathan Easley, The Hill, 8 May 2025
That the internecine fight went public was regrettable: spectators crowed for these race and gender studies nerds to go at each other, with the book taking arguably the greatest damage.
—Erin Khuê Ninh
june 17, Literary Hub, 17 June 2025
As a result of that internecine conflict, Hamas seized Gaza, effectively halving the territory that had been given to the PA at its creation a little more than a decade before.
—Sean Durns, The Washington Examiner, 6 June 2025
After World War II, the United States crafted a network of alliances in the region, hoping to keep Soviet expansion at bay, entrench its own military presence—particularly in East Asia—and curb internecine tensions among its partners.
—Ely Ratner, Foreign Affairs, 27 May 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 8 Jul. 2025.
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internecine
adjective
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