xenocide

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/ˈzɛnəsaɪd//ˈziːnəsaɪd/

noun

The killing of a stranger or foreigner.

RareScrabble 18

Meanings

nounxenocide (countable and uncountable, plural xenocides)

plural xenocides

  1. countableuncountableThe killing of a stranger or foreigner.
    1 more example

    As notorious examples of ritual xenocide, suffice it to mention the foreigners sacrificed on the altar of the goddess Artemis in Colchis, on the eastern shore of the Black Sea (Diodorus Siculus, Bibliotheca Historica, 4.45) as well as the ritual of beheading strangers when the reaping season drew to a close, performed by the legendary Lityerses, king of Phyrgia. [...] [In] an act of ritual xenocide in a Cossack villafe [...] Cossacks kill a Turkish woman[.]

    2009, Andrei Oisteanu, Inventing the Jew: Antisemitic Stereotypes
  2. countableuncountableliteratureThe genocide of an entire alien species.

    The age that began with one xenocide attempted had now ended with other xenocides prevented or, at least, postponed.

    1996, Orson Scott Card, Children of the Mind
  3. UScolloquialcountableuncountableThe intentional killing of an entire foreign (plant or animal) species.

Origin

Translations

Finnish lajinmurha
  • lajinmurhagenocide of entire alien species
French xénocide
  • xénocidegenocide of entire alien species
German Xenozid
  • Xenozidgenocide of entire alien species
Greek ξενοκτονία
  • ξενοκτονία (xenoktonía)genocide of entire alien species
Italian xenocidio
  • xenocidiogenocide of entire alien species
Polish ksenocyd
  • ksenocydgenocide of entire alien species
Portuguese xenocídio
  • xenocídiogenocide of entire alien species
Russian ксеноци́д
  • ксеноци́д (ksenocíd)genocide of entire alien species
Spanish xenocidio
  • xenocidiogenocide of entire alien species
Cite this entry
APA

xenocide. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/xenocide

MLA

“xenocide.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/xenocide. Accessed November 3, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “xenocide,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/xenocide.

Source: xenocide on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.