pogrom

[puh-gruhm, -grom, poh-]

noun

1. an organized massacre, especially of Jews.

   Synonyms: butchery, slaughter

pogrom

/ ˈpɒɡrəm /

noun

1. an organized persecution or extermination of an ethnic group, esp of Jews

pogrom

1. A massacre or persecution instigated by the government or by the ruling class against a minority group, particularly Jews (see also Jews).

Pogroms were common in Russia during the nineteenth century.

Word History and Origins

Origin of pogrom¹

1880–85; (< Yiddish ) < Russian pogróm literally, destruction, devastation (of a town, country, etc., as in war), noun derivative of pogromít’, equivalent to po- perfective prefix + gromít’ to destroy, devastate, derivative of grom thunder

Word History and Origins

Origin of pogrom¹

C20: via Yiddish from Russian: destruction, from po- like + grom thunder

Example Sentences

He denies that the country the survivors of the pogroms and the Shoah have built over the past 77 years has the right to exist as a Jewish state.

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The same country that offered sanctuary to Jews fleeing czarist pogroms and Nazi terror now tolerates open Jew-hatred in its streets.

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His Tevye, a patriarch trying to hold his family together amid the double assault of poverty and pogroms, was especially touching in his appeal to the Almighty to ease up on the litany of suffering.

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In March, pro-government factions committed what rights groups called a pogrom in Syria’s coastal region, torturing, kidnapping and killing some 1,500 people from the Alawite community.

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A number of those factions then engaged in a pogrom against Alawite civilians, residents and activists said.

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Related Words

• annihilation 
• bloodbath 
• bloodletting 
• butchery 
• carnage 
• extermination www.thesaurus.com
• genocide