filicide
Americannoun
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a person who kills their own child.
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the act of killing one's child.
Ancient myth contains numerous examples of filicide.
noun
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the act of killing one's own son or daughter
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a person who does this
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of filicide
First recorded in 1655–65; from Latin fīli(us) “son” ( fīli(a) “daughter”) + -cide
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Canada, Australia, Japan, Brazil, Sweden, the U.K. and more than a dozen other countries have maternal filicide laws that cover cases like Clancy’s.
From Salon ● Sep. 2, 2026
Podcasters, reporters and TV producers rushed to South Carolina to tell a Shakespearean story of filicide, anchored by a main character whose button-down shirts seem to cover a terrifying moral void.
From New York Times ● Mar. 8, 2023
He warns that an un-nuanced focus by the media on autism-related filicide harks back to the 1950s, when the “refrigerator mother” theory of autism erroneously suggested that a lack of maternal affection caused autism.
From Newsweek
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Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
