holocaust

• POS: Noun
• HYPHEN: hol=o=caust

CIDE DICTIONARY

holocaust, n. [L. holocaustum, Gr. , neut. of , , burnt whole; "o'los whole + kaysto`s burnt, fr. kai`ein to burn (cf. Caustic): cf. F. holocauste.].

•  A burnt sacrifice; an offering, the whole of which was consumed by fire, among the Jews and some pagan nations.  Milton.  [1913 Webster]
•  Sacrifice or loss of many lives, as by the burning of a theater or a ship.

  "[An extended use not authorized by careful writers.]"  [1913 Webster]
•  The mass killing of millions of Jews by the Nazis during the period from 1933 to 1945 in Germany and German-occupied lands; usually referred to as The Holocaust. In Hebrew, the same event is referred to by the word Shoah.  [PJC]

OXFORD DICTIONARY

holocaust, n.
1 a case of large-scale destruction, esp. by fire or nuclear war.
2 (the Holocaust) the mass murder of the Jews by the Nazis 1939-45.
3 a sacrifice wholly consumed by fire.

Etymology

ME f. OF holocauste f. LL holocaustum f. Gk holokauston (as HOLO-, kaustos burnt f. kaio burn)

THESAURUS

holocaust

annihilation, bloodbath, blue ruin, breakup, burnt offering, butchery, carnage, clawing, collection, conflagration, consumption, cruciation, crucifixion, damnation, decimation, depredation, desolation, despoilment, despoliation, destruction, devastation, disintegration, disorganization, disruption, dissolution, drink offering, elimination, eradication, ex voto offering, extermination, extinction, final solution, fire, genocide, havoc, heave offering, hecatomb, hell, hell upon earth, horror, human sacrifice, immolation, incense, infanticide, inferno, laceration, lancination, libation, mactation, martyrdom, mass destruction, mass murder, massacre, nightmare, oblation, offering, offertory, passion, peace offering, perdition, persecution, piacular offering, pogrom, purgatory, race extermination, race-murder, rack, ravage, ruin, ruination, sacramental offering, sacrifice, saturnalia of blood, scapegoat, self-immolation, self-sacrifice, shambles, slaughter, spoliation, suttee, sutteeism, thank offering, torment, torture, undoing, vandalism, votive offering, waste, whole offering, wholesale murder, wrack, wrack and ruin, wreck

ROGET THESAURUS

holocaust

Idolatry

N idolatry, idolism, demonism, demonolatry, idol- worship, demon-worship, devil-worship, fire-worship, zoolatry, fetishism, fetichism, ecclesiolatry, heliolatry, Mariolatry, Bibliolatry, deification, apotheosis, canonization, hero worship, sacrifices, hecatomb, holocaust, human sacrifices, immolation, mactation, infanticide, self-immolation, suttee, idol, golden calf, graven image, fetich, avatar, Juggernath, lares et penates, Baal, idolatrous, adorer le veau d'or.

Killing

N killing, homicide, manslaughter, murder, assassination, trucidation, iccusion, effusion of blood, blood, blood shed, gore, slaughter, carnage, butchery, battue, massacre, fusillade, noyade, thuggery, Thuggism, deathblow, finishing stroke, coup de grace, quietus, execution, judicial murder, martyrdom, butcher, slayer, murderer, Cain, assassin, terrorist, cutthroat, garroter, bravo, Thug, Moloch, matador, sabreur, guet-a-pens, gallows, executioner, man-eater, apache, hatchet man, highbinder, regicide, parricide, matricide, fratricide, infanticide, feticide, foeticide, uxoricide, vaticide, suicide, felo de se, hara-kiri, suttee, Juggernath, immolation, auto da fe, holocaust, suffocation, strangulation, garrote, hanging, lapidation, deadly weapon, Aceldama, slaughtering, phthisozoics, sport, sporting, the chase, venery, hunting, coursing, shooting, fishing, pig- sticking, sportsman, huntsman, fisherman, hunter, Nimrod, slaughterhouse, meat packing plant, shambles, abattoir, fatal accident, violent death, casualty, killing, murderous, slaughterous, sanguinary, sanguinolent, blood stained, blood thirsty, homicidal, red handed, bloody, bloody minded, ensanguined, gory, thuggish, mortal, fatal, lethal, dead, deadly, mortiferous, lethiferous, unhealthy internecine, suicidal, sporting, piscatorial, piscatory, in at the death, assassination has never changed the history of the.