carnage

[kahr-nij]

noun

1. the slaughter of a great number of people, as in battle; butchery; massacre.

2. fighting or other violence.

   brutal carnage on the football field.

3. great damage, utter defeat, or chaos.

   We are charting a way forward after the Election Day carnage.

4. Archaic.,  dead bodies, as of those slain in battle.

carnage

/ ˈkɑːnɪdʒ /

noun

1. extensive slaughter, esp of human beings in battle

Word History and Origins

Origin of carnage¹

First recorded in 1590–1600; from Middle French, from Italian carnaggio, from Medieval Latin carnāticum “payment or offering in meat,” equivalent to Latin carn- (stem of carō ) “flesh” + -āticum noun sufffix; -age

Word History and Origins

Origin of carnage¹

C16: from French, from Italian carnaggio, from Medieval Latin carnāticum, from Latin carō flesh

Example Sentences

Israel is emerging from the carnage as the regional hegemon with a string of military victories.

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A percentage of babies born every day will manifest queer characteristics, and though countless strongmen have left fields of carnage in attempts to manage so-called bloodlines, nobody can override such DNA destiny.

Read more on Salon

I’ve seen him scared many times — often while I was sitting just a few feet away from the carnage in a front row seat.

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Heavy and jagged portions of the floors and walls sat in piles where tree roots and vines had pushed through and wound around the remains of scavenged equipment, a kind of mechanical carnage.

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"It was absolute carnage out there, but it makes it that much better that we managed to handle it," MacIntyre said.

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Related Words

• bloodshed 
• butchery 
• crime 
• havoc 
• killing 
• mass murder 
• slaughter 
• slaying www.thesaurus.com
• warfare