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What is the difference between genocide and holocaust?

genocide | holocaust |

Holocaust is a see also of genocide.


As nouns the difference between genocide and holocaust

is that genocide is the systematic killing of substantial numbers of people on the basis of ethnicity, religion, political opinion, social status, or other particularity while holocaust is a sacrifice that is completely burned to ashes.

genocide

English

(wikipedia genocide)

Noun

  • The systematic killing of substantial numbers of people on the basis of their ethnicity, religion, political beliefs, social status, or other particularities.
  • *

    • Usage notes

    (Genocide definitions) Genocide is defined in various laws, and used in varying ways; characterization of an act as “genocide” is a strong condemnation, and may prove contentious. Narrowly speaking, genocide was coined to mean, and is generally used in law to mean, the destruction of an ethnic group qua group, whether killing of all members of the group or other means, such as dispersing the group. In common usage, “genocide” is often used to mean “systematic mass killing”, whether or not the purpose is the destruction of the group or some other purpose, such as terrorizing the group. Specific genocides are often capitalized, e.g. "Armenian G enocide".

    Derived terms

    * autogenocide, auto-genocide * cultural genocide * genocidal * genocidally * genocidism * genocidist

    Related terms

    * ethnocide, democide (suffixsee)

    See also

    * crime against humanity * dehumanization * democide * ethnic cleansing * holocaust, Holocaust * Holodomor * mass murder * Porajmos * pogrom * Shoah * war crime

    Verb

    (en-verb)
  • To commit genocide (against); to eliminate (a group of people) completely.

    • References

    holocaust

    English

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • A sacrifice that is completely burned to ashes.
  • * 1526 , William Tyndale, trans. Bible , Mark XII:
    • And to love a mans nehbour as hymsilfe, ys a greater thynge then all holocaustes and sacrifises.
  • * 1646 , Sir Thomas Browne, Pseudodoxia Epidemica , III.3:
    • in the holocaust or burnt-offering of Moses, the gall was cast away: for, as Ben Maimon instructeth, the inwards, whereto the gall adhereth, were taken out with the crop (according unto the law,) which the priest did not burn, but cast unto the east [...].
  • The annihilation or near-annihilation of a group of animals or people, whether by natural or deliberate agency.
    • nuclear holocaust
  • The state-sponsored mass murder of an ethnic group. In particular, the Holocaust (which see ).
  • An inferno or fire disaster.
    • a nuclear holocaust

    Usage notes

    * Use of the word holocaust to depict Jewish suffering under the Nazis dates back to 1942, according to the OED. By the 1970s, The Holocaust'' was often synonymous with the Jewish exterminations. This use of the term as a synonym for the Jewish exterminations has been criticised because it appears to imply that there was a voluntary religious purpose behind the Nazi actions, which was not the case from either the Nazis' perspective or the victims'. Hence, some people prefer the term ''Shoah'', which means ''destruction . * The word continues to be used in its other senses. For example, part of the action of a BBC radio drama by James Follett in 1981 takes place in “Holocaust City”, which by inference was named because the inhabitants were the only survivors of a global nuclear war. * For more information on the use of the term Holocaust'', see the entry ''Holocaust .

    Related terms

    * caustic * holo- * nuclear holocaust

    See also

    * burnt offering * ethnic cleansing * pogrom

    References

    * Lewis M. Paternoster and Ruth Frager-Stone, Three Dimensions of Vocabulary Growth, second edition (Amsco School Publications, 1998) * Oxford Dictionary: holocaust * * ----