internecine

• POS: Adjective
• HYPHEN: in=ter=ne=cine

CIDE DICTIONARY

internecine, a. [L. internecinus deadly, murderous, fr. internecare to kill, to slaughter; inter between + necare to kill; akin to Gr. dead. See Necromancy.].

•  Involving, or accompanied by, mutual slaughter; mutually destructive.  [1913 Webster]

  "Internecine quarrels, horrible tumults, stain the streets with blood."  [1913 Webster]
•  Of or pertaining to internal conflicts within a group; as, internecine quarrels.  [PJC]

OXFORD DICTIONARY

internecine, adj. mutually destructive.

Etymology

orig. = deadly, f. L internecinus f. internecio massacre f. internecare slaughter (as INTER-, necare kill)

THESAURUS

internecine

baneful, brutal, calamitous, cataclysmal, cataclysmic, catastrophic, consuming, consumptive, deadly, death-bringing, deathful, deathly, demolishing, demolitionary, depredatory, desolating, destroying, destructive, devastating, disastrous, doomful, fatal, fateful, feral, fratricidal, killing, lethal, malign, malignant, mortal, nihilist, nihilistic, pernicious, ravaging, ruining, ruinous, savage, self-destructive, subversionary, subversive, suicidal, vandalic, vandalish, vandalistic, virulent, wasteful, wasting, withering

ROGET THESAURUS

internecine

Warfare

N warfare, fighting, hostilities, war, arms, the sword, Mars, Bellona, grim visaged war, horrida bella, bloodshed, appeal to arms, appeal to the sword, ordeal of battle, wager of battle, ultima ratio regum, arbitrament of the sword, battle array, campaign, crusade, expedition, operations, mobilization, state of siege, battlefield, theater of operations, warpath, art of war, tactics, strategy, castrametation, generalship, soldiership, logistics, military evolutions, ballistics, gunnery, chivalry, gunpowder, shot, battle, tug of war, service, campaigning, active service, tented field, kriegspiel, Kriegsspiel, fire cross, trumpet, clarion, bugle, pibroch, slogan, war-cry, war-whoop, battle cry, beat of drum, rappel, tom-tom, calumet of war, word of command, password, watchword, passage d-armes, war to the death, war to the knife, guerre a mort, guerre a outrance, open war, internecine war, civil war, contending, contentious, armed, armed to the teeth, armed cap-a-pie, sword in hand, in arms, under arms, up in arms, at war with, bristling with arms, in battle array, in open arms, in the field, embattled, battled, unpacific, unpeaceful, belligerent, combative, armigerous, bellicose, martial, warlike, military, militant, soldier-like, soldierly, chivalrous, strategical, internecine, flagrante bello, in the thick of the fray, in the cannon's mouth, at the sword's point, at the point of the bayonet, Int, vae victis!, to arms!, to your tents O Israel!, the battle rages, a la guerre comme a la guerre, bis peccare in bello non licet, jus gladii, my voice is still for war, 'tis well that war is so terrible, otherwise we might grow fond of it, my sentence is for open war, pride, pomp, and circumstance of glorious war, the cannons have their bowels full of wrath, the cannons aspit forth their iron indignation, the fire-eyed maid of smoky war, silent leges inter arma, si vis pacem para bellum.