holocaust
- a great or complete devastation or destruction, especially by fire.
- a sacrifice completely consumed by fire; burnt offering.
- (usually initial capital letter) the systematic mass slaughter of European Jews in Nazi concentration camps during World War II (usually preceded by the).
- any mass slaughter or reckless destruction of life.
Origin of holocaust
Synonyms
See more synonyms for on Thesaurus.comRelated Words
devastation, extermination, catastrophe, massacre, slaughter, genocide, carnage, annihilation, inferno, extinction, immolationExamples from the Web for holocaust
Contemporary Examples
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.
Historical Examples
Dugommier would listen to no such proposition for a holocaust.
The Life of Napoleon BonaparteWilliam Milligan Sloane
Yet even in this holocaust there were degrees, gradations of sacrifice.
Woman's Work in the Civil WarLinus Pierpont Brockett
Mirla, we know, is out of the question; it is a holocaust of fire.
Walls of AcidHenry Hasse
It is to explain that and to ask your cooperation in warding off the holocaust that I have sent for you.
The Copper-Clad WorldHarl Vincent
Next day the ceremony was to be continued by a holocaust of pigs.
Celebrated Travels and TravellersJules Verne
holocaust
- great destruction or loss of life or the source of such destruction, esp fire
- Also called: the Churban, the 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
- a rare word for burnt offering
Word Origin
Word Origin and History for holocaust
n.
mid-13c., "sacrifice by fire, burnt offering," from Greek holokauston "a thing wholly burnt," neuter of holokaustos "burned whole," from holos "whole" (see holo-) + kaustos, verbal adjective of kaiein "to burn." Originally a Bible word for "burnt offerings," given wider sense of "massacre, destruction of a large number of persons" from 1833. The Holocaust "Nazi genocide of European Jews in World War II," first recorded 1957, earlier known in Hebrew as Shoah "catastrophe." The word itself was used in English in reference to Hitler's Jewish policies from 1942, but not as a proper name for them.
Auschwitz makes all too clear the principle that the human psyche can create meaning out of anything. [Robert Jay Lifton, "The Nazi Doctors"]
Holocaust
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.)