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Holocaust vs Apocalypse - What's the difference?

holocaust | apocalypse |

As nouns the difference between holocaust and apocalypse

is that holocaust is a sacrifice that is completely burned to ashes while apocalypse is a revelation.

As proper nouns the difference between holocaust and apocalypse

is that holocaust is the systematic mass murder (genocide) of 6 million Jews perpetrated by Nazi Germany shortly before and during World War II while Apocalypse is the written account of a revelation of hidden things given by God to a chosen prophet.

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 * * ----

    apocalypse

    English

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • A revelation.
    • The early development of Perl 6 was punctuated by a series of apocalypses by Larry Wall.
  • (Christianity) The unveiling of events prophesied in the ; the second coming and the end of life on Earth; global destruction.
  • A disaster; a cataclysmic event.
  • * 2009 , (Diarmaid MacCulloch), A History of Christianity , Penguin 2010, p. 699:
    • The Spanish mission in America soon became not so much crusade as apocalypse .

    Synonyms

    * armageddon * doomsday * judgement day * nuclear holocaust * Ragnarok (Ragnarök) * Final Judgment * end times * eschaton

    Derived terms

    * apocalyptic * apocalypticism * snowpocalypse