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View synonyms for holocaust

holocaust

[ hol-uh-kawst, hoh-luh- ]

noun

  1. a great or complete devastation or destruction, especially by fire.

    Synonyms: ravage, havoc, ruin, conflagration, inferno

  2. a sacrifice completely consumed by fire; burnt offering.
  3. Usually the Holocaust. the systematic mass slaughter of European Jews in Nazi concentration camps during World War II.
  4. any mass slaughter or reckless destruction of life.


holocaust

/ ˈhɒləˌkɔːst /

noun

  1. great destruction or loss of life or the source of such destruction, esp fire
  2. Also calledthe Churbanthe Shoah usually capital the mass murder of Jews and members of many other ethnic, social, and political groups in continental Europe between 1940 and 1945 by the Nazi regime
  3. a rare word for burnt offering
“Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged” 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012


Holocaust

  1. The killing of some six million Jews (see also Jews ) by the Nazis during World War II . To the Nazis, the Holocaust was the “ Final Solution ” to the “Jewish problem,” and would help them establish a pure German master race . Much of the killing took place in concentration camps , such as Auschwitz and Dachau . ( See Adolf Eichmann and Heinrich Himmler .)


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Derived Forms

  • ˌholoˈcaustal, adjective
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Other Words From

  • hol·o·caus·tal adjective
  • hol·o·caus·tic adjective
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Word History and Origins

Origin of holocaust1

First recorded in 1200–50; Middle English, from Late Latin holocaustum (Vulgate), from Greek holókauston (Septuagint), neuter of holókaustos “burnt whole”; holo-, caustic
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Word History and Origins

Origin of holocaust1

C13: from Late Latin holocaustum whole burnt offering, from Greek holokauston, from holo- + kaustos, from kaiein to burn
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Example Sentences

Several of them disputed the figure of six million Jewish deaths in the Holocaust.

In the Jewish community, Christians who saved Jews from the Holocaust are known as “righteous gentiles.”

However, Brunner was not the only perpetrator of the Holocaust mooching around the streets of the Syrian capital.

That word “denialism” is particularly profane, with its unsubtle invocation of the Holocaust.

Belzberg had grown up learning about WWII and visiting Holocaust museums since she was a young girl.

He shall offer the lamb, and the sacrifice, and the oil morning by morning: an everlasting holocaust.

Next day the ceremony was to be continued by a holocaust of pigs.

What difference between the holocaust of a witch and that of two vile criminals?

Indeed, it was the grave of the soldier boy who had been the first to fall in the terrible holocaust of war.

At a guess, McAllen had constructed it as a secure personal retreat in the event of something like a nuclear holocaust.

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