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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

slaughter.

The killing of animals, generally for food.

9 characters2 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

noun/ˈslɔːtə/Received-Pronunciation/ˈsloːtə/Australia, British, New-Zealand, Southern, Standard/ˈslɔtəɾ/Scotland/ˈslɔtɚ/
  1. The killing of animals, generally for food.

    uncountable
  2. A massacre; the killing of a large number of people.

    countable · uncountable
  3. A mass destruction of non-living things.

    countable · rare · uncountable
  4. A rout or decisive defeat.

    countable · uncountable
  5. A group of iguanas.

    collective · countable · uncountable
Where this word comes from

From Middle English slaughter, from Old Norse *slahtr, later sláttr, from Proto-Germanic *slahtrą, from Proto-Germanic *slahaną. Equivalent to slay + -ter (as in laughter). Eventually derived from Proto-Indo-European *slak- (“to hit, strike, throw”). Related with Dutch slachten, German schlachten, Finnish lahdata (all “to slaughter”).

verb/ˈslɔːtə/Received-Pronunciation/ˈsloːtə/Australia, British, New-Zealand, Southern, Standard/ˈslɔtəɾ/Scotland/ˈslɔtɚ/
  1. To butcher animals, generally for food.

    transitive
  2. To massacre people in large numbers.

    intransitive · transitive
  3. To kill someone or something, especially in a particularly brutal manner.

    transitive
Where this word comes from

From Middle English slaughter, from Old Norse *slahtr, later sláttr, from Proto-Germanic *slahtrą, from Proto-Germanic *slahaną. Equivalent to slay + -ter (as in laughter). Eventually derived from Proto-Indo-European *slak- (“to hit, strike, throw”). Related with Dutch slachten, German schlachten, Finnish lahdata (all “to slaughter”).

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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.