Khmer Rouge

American  

[kmair roozh, kuh-mair] / ˈkmɛər ˈruʒ, kəˈmɛər /

noun

• Khmers Rouges
  plural

1. a Cambodian guerrilla and rebel force and political opposition movement, originally Communist and Communist-backed.

2. a member or supporter of this force.

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Khmer Rouge British  

/ ruːʒ /

noun

1. the Kampuchean communist party, which seized power (1975) in a civil war: in exile since 1979, dispersed in 1999

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Khmer Rouge Cultural  

1. The communist movement in Kampuchea (Cambodia) in Southeast Asia. It came to power in 1975.

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Discover More

Led by Pol Pot, the Khmer Rouge, after it came to power, instituted one of the worst examples of genocide in world history. Estimates of the number of people killed under this regime vary from two million to four million.

Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• Khmers Rouges
  plural

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Etymology

Origin of Khmer Rouge

< French Khmer (or Khmère ) rouge literally, red Khmer

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Example Sentences

See Examples For:

Khmer Rouge

She and her family left Cambodia in 1979 to escape the genocide committed by the brutal Khmer Rouge regime and settled in Chicago.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 25, 2026

Experts say the trade thrived from the mid-1960s to the 1990s -- a period of instability that saw the anti-intellectual Khmer Rouge regime rise to power and left precious heritage unprotected.

From Barron's ● Feb. 27, 2026

Their guide in the slums of the capital was Sothea Arun, a slight and soft-spoken man who says he lost his parents and many family members to the Khmer Rouge.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 8, 2025

The Khmer Rouge still posed a military threat into the late 1990s, and much of the early coverage focused on that conflict, aided by a multinational staff and freelancers.

From Seattle Times ● Mar. 1, 2024

Pa does not fear the Khmer Rouge soldiers will want Meng to join the army because he is physically weak, so Pa allows him to stay unmarried.

From "First They Killed My Father: A Daughter of Cambodia Remembers" by Loung Ung

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