ethnic cleansing

noun

1. the elimination of an unwanted ethnic group or groups from a society, as by genocide or forced emigration.

ethnic cleansing

noun

1. euphemistic.
   the violent removal by one ethnic group of other ethnic groups from the population of a particular area: used esp of the activities of Serbs against Croats and Muslims in the former Yugoslavia

ethnic cleansing

1. A euphemism to describe the forceful removal or genocide of minority ethnic groups ( see ethnicity ) during the breakup of Yugoslavia . It was used mainly to describe the Serbs' attacks on Muslims in Bosnia and Albanians in Kosovo. ( See Slobodan Milosevic and Kosovo War .)

Word History and Origins

Origin of ethnic cleansing¹

First recorded in 1985–90

Example Sentences

Abiy, a Nobel Peace Prize laureate, now speaks in tones threatening ethnic cleansing — promising, for example, to “bury” his opponents, in a post censored by Facebook.

From Time

The “need” for ethnic cleansing can pop up in casual conversations on politics among friends or family.

From Time

He predicts that after the March 16 referendum, the suppression of dissidents and even ethnic cleansing could become more common.

From The Daily Beast

They equated Israeli policy with apartheid and insisted the country was built on ethnic cleansing.

From The Daily Beast

The words "ethnic cleansing" or "sectarian cleansing" appear fairly regularly in news reports from Syria.

From The Daily Beast

In 1998, President Clinton bombed Serbia in response to the attempted ethnic cleansing of Kosovo without such approval.

From The Daily Beast

Fancy words for what could essentially be considered ethnic cleansing, writes James Ciment, author of this new history of Liberia.

From The Daily Beast

Ethnic cleansing has many faces, brutality is not its integrated feature.

From Project Gutenberg

This instability of boundaries led to ethnic cleansing, to numerous international congresses, to fitful wars.

From Project Gutenberg

It is only when ethnic cleansing is combined with self-determination that a fracturing of the solutions occurs.

From Project Gutenberg

Self-determination is employed to facilitate ethnic cleansing rather than to prevent it.

From Project Gutenberg

There are many variants of this malignant, brutal, condemnable, criminal and inefficient form of ethnic cleansing.

From Project Gutenberg