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homicide

UK/ˈhɒm.ɪˌsaɪ̯d/US/ˈhɑ.məˌsaɪ̯d/
nounB2Very common — you will meet it every day · #1,826 of 15,258leans spoken

Other forms: homicides

Homicide is the killing of one person by another. A homicide investigation, charged with homicide, the homicide rate.

It is a neutral term for the fact of the killing, and it does not by itself say the killing was a crime — self-defence is a homicide too. That is why it is the useful word for statistics and for police work. In American law and television homicide is the standard charge and detective division; British English says murder or manslaughter, which are the two crimes English law divides the ground into. Note justifiable homicide, the legal phrase for a lawful one.

Definitions of homicide

  1. 1nounhomicideThe killing of one person by another.B2

    “The homicide rate has fallen for a decade.”

    synonyms: killing, murder

homicide is a killing.

Where it comes from

Latin homicida is homo, a person, plus caedere, to kill — the same caedere behind suicide, pesticide and decide, which was originally to cut a question off. The word names only the act, which is why the law needs further words for the guilt.

  1. Latin

    homicīda — man-slayer

  2. Old French

    homicide

  3. English, today

    homicide

Built from

  • homicīdium · Latin — manslaughter

From Old French homicide, from Latin homicīda (“man-slayer”) and homicīdium (“manslaughter”).

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practised in Crime & Law

Practise this word

homicide in the wild

  • Child murder, also known as pedicide, child manslaughter or child homicide, is the homicide of an individual who is a minor.

    Child murder

  • The term lust killing stems from the original work of the German psychiatrist Richard von Krafft-Ebing in his 1898 discussion of sadistic homicides.

    Lust murder

  • Vehicular homicide is similar to the offense, in some countries, of "dangerous driving causing death".

    Vehicular homicide

  • Rates of homicide incidents remain considerably higher in the United States than in Canada.

    Crime in Canada

  • The term sometimes includes more general cases of homicide rather than strictly murder, meaning that cases of manslaughter are included.

    Murder–suicide

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From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.

Related words

the homicide family

homicide

homicide — used about once every 215 pages · #1,826 · point at the bar for the others