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regicide

[rej-uh-sahyd]
See more synonyms for regicide on Thesaurus.com
noun
  1. the killing of a king.
  2. a person who kills a king or is responsible for his death, especially one of the judges who condemned Charles I of England to death.
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Origin of regicide

1540–50; < Latin rēg-, stem of rēx king + -i- + -cide
Related formsreg·i·cid·al, adjective
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018

Examples from the Web for regicide

Historical Examples

  • Was it really revolution and regicide which Rossi contemplated?

    The Eternal City

    Hall Caine

  • Michael, you have the right to draw first; you are a Regicide.

    Vera

    Oscar Wilde

  • She clung to her regicide purpose with the tenacity of a tigress.

    France and the Republic

    William Henry Hurlbert

  • None but the village preacher knew that it was Goffe, the regicide.

    A short history of Rhode Island

    George Washington Greene

  • In the first place, the merits of The Regicide are of the scantiest.

    Tobias Smollett

    Oliphant Smeaton

British Dictionary definitions for regicide

regicide

noun
  1. the killing of a king
  2. a person who kills a king
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Derived Formsregicidal, adjective

Word Origin

C16: from Latin rēx king + -cide
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Word Origin and History for regicide

n.

1540s, "man who kills a king," formed from Latin rex (genitive regis) "king" (see regal) on model of suicide. Meaning "crime of killing a king" is from c.1600.

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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper