Meanings
- uncountableThe destruction of a planet or of natural ecosystems.
He hoped for a day when terracide, the death of the planet, was no longer possible, where the grim pendulum of global warming and global dimming was swinging the other way.
2013, Andrea Wright, Greenstone Rising, FriesenPress, →ISBN2 more examples
Months earlier the Elders of Chrislam had identified the Reborn saboteurs and handed them over to ASTROPOL, but they had stubbornly refused to defend themselves. There was also another problem: where could one find an unprejudiced jury? Certainly not on Earth, and probably not even on Mars. Moreover, what was a suitable sentence for terracide?
1993, Arthur C. Clarke, The Hammer of God, Bantam Spectra, published 1994, →ISBN, page 190The sense of the sacred is presented here as the nucleus of the good and the only force that can bring about the lifestyle changes and power reallocations that are necessary to prevent terracide.
1998, Daniel C. Maguire & Larry L. Rasmussen, Ethics for a Small Planet: New Horizons on Population, Consumption, and Ecology, State University of New York Press (1998), back cover blurb
Origin
From Latin terra (“the world”) + -cide.
Full word history & related roots →Rhymes & wordplay
Anagrams
Cite this entry
terracide. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/terracide
“terracide.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/terracide. Accessed November 3, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “terracide,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/terracide.
Source: terracide on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.