internecine

adjective in·ter·ne·cine \ ˌin-tər-ˈne-ˌsēn , -ˈnē-sᵊn , -ˈnē-ˌsīn , -nə-ˈsēn ; in-ˈtər-nə-ˌsēn \

Definition of internecine

1 :marked by slaughter :deadly; especially :mutually destructive

2 :of, relating to, or involving conflict within a group

bitter internecine feuds

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Examples of internecine in a Sentence

a political party that has suffered because of bitter internecine rivalries

Recent Examples of internecine from the Web

Throughout this internecine battle, the media outlets that supported Trump’s rise to power have mostly stood behind the president.

— vanityfair.com, "Trump Confronts His 2020 Paradox," 21 Aug. 2017
Trump’s ouster of Chief of Staff Reince Preibus on July 28 was driven in part by the desire of top White House officials to clamp down on the internecine fighting.

— joshua green, Bloomberg.com, "Bannon’s Path From Trusted Attack Dog to Toxic Liability," 18 Aug. 2017
McMaster has not been as fortunate as Mattis in avoiding the White House’s internecine squabbles.

— bill powell, Newsweek, "Trump's Generals Can Save The World From War—And Stop The Crazy," 12 Aug. 2017
The former presidential candidate has found himself at the center of the Senate GOP's internecine warfare over healthcare legslation after Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky.

— Fox News, "Cruz: Congress shouldn't recess until ObamaCare repealed, replaced," 11 July 2017
Qatar hosts a major U.S. air base and America has little use for an internecine conflict between its Arab partners.

— eric levitz, Daily Intelligencer, "Kushner Sought $500 Million Bailout From Top Qatari Investor: Report," 10 July 2017
But in El Akkad's dystopian vision, those differences have led, once again, to secession and internecine warfare.

— the washington post, OregonLive.com, "Omar El Akkad's 'American War' blends 19th-century hatreds, 21st-century weapons," 30 May 2017
A consistently weighty drama examining the fallout from some harshly internecine father-son rivalry, Morgan Simon’s A Taste of Ink considers the high emotional cost of chronic familial conflict.

— justin lowe, The Hollywood Reporter, "‘A Taste of Ink’ (‘Compte tes blessures’): Film Review | COLCOA 2017," 16 May 2017
But the opposition party is also gripped by an internecine battle for its own identity, moving leftward with calls for ideological purity by portions of its activist liberal base.

— karen tumulty, Washington Post, "Pelosi: Democratic candidates should not be forced to toe party line on abortion.," 2 May 2017

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'internecine.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

Did You Know?

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 1663, 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.