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Holocaust vs Massacre - What's the difference?

holocaust | massacre |

As nouns the difference between holocaust and massacre

is that holocaust is a sacrifice that is completely burned to ashes while massacre is the intentional killing of a considerable number of human beings, under circumstances of atrocity or cruelty, or contrary to the norms of civilized people.

As a proper noun Holocaust

is the systematic mass murder (genocide) of 6 million Jews perpetrated by Nazi Germany shortly before and during World War II.

As a verb massacre is

to kill in considerable numbers where much resistance can not be made; to kill with indiscriminate violence, without necessity, and contrary to the norms of civilized people; to butcher; to slaughter. Often limited to the killing of human beings.

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 * * ----

    massacre

    English

    Alternative forms

    * massacer (archaic)

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • The intentional killing of a considerable number of human beings, under circumstances of atrocity or cruelty, or contrary to the norms of civilized people.
    • the massacre on St. Bartholomew's Day
    St. Valentine's Day''' '''massacre
    Amritsar''' '''massacre
  • (obsolete) Murder.
  • * 1593 , , The Tragedy of Richard the Third
    • The tyrannous and bloody act is done,—
    The most arch deed of piteous massacre
    That ever yet this land was guilty of.
  • (figuratively) An overwhelming defeat.

    • Synonyms

    * butchery, carnage, slaughter. *: Massacre denotes the promiscuous slaughter of many who can not make resistance, or much resistance. *:* 1592 , , Titus Andronicus, I,v *:*: I'll find a day to massacre them all, And raze their faction and their family *: Butchery refers to cold-blooded cruelty in the killing of men as if they were brute beasts. *:* 1593 , , Richard III, I,ii *:*: If thou delight to view thy heinous deeds, Behold this pattern of thy butcheries *: Carnage points to slaughter as producing the heaped-up bodies of the slain. *:* 1674 , , Paradise Lost *:*: Such a scent I draw Of carnage , prey innumerable!

    Related terms

    * mass murder * massacrer * massacree

    Verb

    (massacr)
  • To kill in considerable numbers where much resistance can not be made; to kill with indiscriminate violence, without necessity, and contrary to the norms of civilized people; to butcher; to slaughter.
  • * 1849 , , The History Of England From the Accession of James II
    • If James should be pleased to massacre' them all, as Maximilian had ' massacred the Theban legion
  • (figuratively)