Synonyms of murdering

murdering 1 of 2

adjective

as in murderous

eager for or marked by the shedding of blood, extreme violence, or killing

a vow to bring down the murdering fiend who had destroyed his family

Synonyms & Similar Words

• murderous
• bloody
• savage
• brutal
• homicidal
• violent
• bloodthirsty
• vicious
• ferocious
• fierce
• sanguinary
• cruel
• ruthless
• contentious
• sanguine
• hostile
• sanguineous
• sadistic
• aggressive
• bloody-minded
• merciless
• barbaric
• barbarous
• heartless
• hateful
• inhumane
• malicious
• antagonistic
• belligerent
• pitiless
• combative
• cold-blooded
• malignant
• quarrelsome
• bellicose
• malevolent
• malign
• truculent
• bloodstained
• gladiatorial
• pugnacious
• assertive
• discordant
• wanton
• spiteful
• scrappy
• gory
• fell
• grim
• mean
• nasty
• despiteful

Antonyms & Near Antonyms

• peaceful
• disarming
• peaceable
• conciliatory
• sympathetic
• pacific
• propitiatory
• benign
• humane
• kind
• compassionate
• appeasing
• warm
• placating
• pacifying
• dovish
• unassertive
• mollifying
• unaggressive
• kindhearted
• placative
• merciful
• peacemaking
• placatory
• lenient
• tenderhearted
• benevolent
• benignant
• gentle
• warmhearted
• surrendering
• tender
• amiable
• good-hearted
• yielding
• kindly
• clement
• affable
• submissive
• amicable

murdering

2 of 2

verb

present participle of murder

1

as in assassinating

to put to death deliberately

those people made me so mad I felt like I wanted to murder them

Synonyms & Similar Words

• assassinating
• slaying
• killing
• executing
• dispatching
• slaughtering
• neutralizing
• destroying
• getting
• liquidating
• whacking
• terminating
• snuffing
• shooting
• offing
• taking out
• putting away
• doing away with
• croaking
• doing in
• icing
• knocking off
• bumping off
• rubbing out
• massacring
• claiming
• eliminating
• butchering
• cutting down
• smiting
• eradicating
• exterminating
• zapping
• shooting down
• blowing away
• annihilating
• carrying off
• felling
• blotting out
• mowing (down)
• wiping out

Antonyms & Near Antonyms

• restoring
• raising
• reviving
• animating
• resurrecting
• resuscitating

2

as in fumbling

to make or do (something) in a clumsy or unskillful way

we listened in horror as she murdered our favorite song on stage

Synonyms & Similar Words

• fumbling
• blowing
• ruining
• destroying
• butchering
• dubbing
• spoiling
• mangling
• bungling
• booting
• botching
• injuring
• marring
• bumbling
• fluffing
• damaging
• boggling
• screwing up
• wrecking
• mutilating
• fouling up
• mucking up
• goofing (up)
• bobbling
• flubbing
• harming
• muffing
• messing (up)
• foozling
• impairing
• hurting
• buggering (up)
• blundering
• lousing up
• muddling
• bollixing (up)
• blighting
• gumming (up)
• vitiating
• mismanaging
• flawing
• blemishing
• piffling
• mishandling

Antonyms & Near Antonyms

• improving
• helping
• enhancing
• reforming
• refining
• bettering
• remedying
• rectifying
• ameliorating
• repairing
• fixing
• renovating
• meliorating
• revamping
• patching
• reconditioning
• doctoring

Example Sentences

Recent Examples of murdering

Verb

In 1893, Sunday school teacher Lizzie Borden was tried for allegedly murdering her father and stepmother with an axe inside the family home. — Savannah Walsh, Vanity Fair, 4 Aug. 2026

In a newer piece of casting, Sarah Paulson, who’s been filming season 13 of American Horror Story, will appear as Aileen Wuornos, a serial killer who was convicted of murdering seven men in Florida between 1989 and 1990. — Nick Romano, Entertainment Weekly, 4 Aug. 2026

Their other son, Nick Reiner, 32, was arrested on suspicion of murdering his parents by stabbing in December. — Chuck Schilken, Los Angeles Times, 3 Aug. 2026

Their son pleaded guilty in October 2022 to murdering four students and injuring several others in the November 2021 shooting at Oxford High School and was sentenced to life in prison without parole. — Meredith Deliso, ABC News, 30 July 2026

Kohberger pleaded guilty in July 2025 to murdering Ethan Chapin, Xana Kernodle, Madison Mogen and Kaylee Goncalves in Moscow, Idaho, in November 2022. — Michael Ruiz , Stepheny Price, FOXNews.com, 29 July 2026

Bills’ ex-boyfriend, 23-year-old Chace Cook, was promptly arrested and has since been convicted of murdering her, according to online court records reviewed by PEOPLE. — Samira Asma-Sadeque, PEOPLE, 29 July 2026

The former husband of Lindsay Clancy, the Massachusetts mother accused of murdering her three young children, took the stand Monday as the prosecution’s first witness in her triple-murder trial. — Nicki Brown, CNN Money, 27 July 2026

Carrollton police located him, arrested him and charged him with murdering Pitulic, according to a news release. — Fort Worth Star-Telegram, 27 July 2026