infanticide
Americannoun
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the act of killing an infant.
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the practice of killing newborn infants.
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a person who kills an infant.
noun
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the killing of an infant
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the practice of killing newborn infants, still prevalent in some primitive tribes
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a person who kills an infant
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of infanticide
1650–60; infanticide ( def. 1 ) < Late Latin infanticīdium; infanticide ( def. 2 ) < Late Latin infanticīda. See infant, -i-, -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.
In more than half of the nests, infanticide didn’t occur when a female took a new mate.
From Science Magazine • May 5, 2024
From the moment a male lion is born it faces a gauntlet of challenges – from snakebite and hungry hyenas to infanticide at the hands of other male lions.
From Scientific American • Aug. 21, 2023
Later in her trial, jurors were given the option to consider an alternative verdict of infanticide rather than murder if they believed she killed Stanley whilst the balance of her mind was disturbed.
From BBC • Jun. 23, 2023
“They think it’s a heinous crime, akin to infanticide, Auschwitz,” Radosevich said.
From Seattle Times • Oct. 11, 2020
And again: "It is a curious fact that nowhere now, that we are aware of, is infanticide a system where exogamy and the earliest form of kinship co-exists."
From The Origin of the Family, Private Property and the State by Engels, Friedrich
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
