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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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

Etymology

Origin of Khmer Rouge

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

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

Khmer Rouge

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

During a sabbatical, she covered the Khmer Rouge trials from Cambodia.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 1, 2026

French Cambodian director Rithy Panh has often cited the genocidal regime of the Khmer Rouge, which killed his family and from which he escaped, as the reason he’s a filmmaker.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 20, 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

“The Khmer Rouge lied. They have won the war, and we cannot go back. You must stop thinking we can go back. You have to forget Phnom Penh.”

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