From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
In the
English language , terms for types of killing often end in the
suffix -cide .
Suicide , intentionally causing one's own death.
Altruistic suicide , suicide for the benefit of others.
Autocide , suicide by automobile collision.
Medicide , a suicide accomplished with the aid of a physician.
Murder-suicide , a suicide committed immediately after one or more murders.
Self-immolation , suicide by fire, often as a form of protest.
Suicide by cop , acting in a threatening manner so as to provoke a lethal response from law enforcement.
All of these are considered types of
homicide .
Avunculicide – the act of killing an uncle (
Latin : avunculus "(maternal) uncle").
Familicide – is a multiple-victim homicide where a killer's spouse and children are slain (
Latin : familia "family").
Filicide – the act of a parent killing their child (
Latin : filius "son" and
Latin : filia "daughter").
Fratricide – the act of killing a brother (
Latin : frater "brother"); also, in military context, death by friendly fire.
Geronticide – the abandonment of the elderly to die, die by suicide or be killed.
Honour killing – the act of murdering a family member perceived to have brought disgrace to the family.
Infanticide – the act of killing a child within the first year of their life.
Mariticide – the act of killing one's husband (
Latin : maritus "husband").
Matricide – the act of killing one's mother (
Latin : mater "mother").
Neonaticide – the act of killing an infant within the first twenty-four hours or month (varies by individual and jurisdiction) of its life.
Nepoticide – the act of killing one's nephew.
Parricide or parenticide – the killing of one's mother, father, or other close relative.
Patricide – the act of killing of one's father (
Latin : pater "father").
Prolicide – the act of killing one's own children.
Senicide – the killing of one's elderly family members when they can no longer work or they have become a burden (
Latin : senex "old man").
Siblicide – the killing of an infant individual by their close relatives (full or half siblings).
Sororicide – the act of killing one's sister (
Latin : soror "sister").
Uxoricide – the act of killing one's wife (
Latin : uxor "wife").
Amicicide – the act of killing a friend (
Latin : amicus "friend").
Androcide – the systematic killing of men.
Assassination – the act of killing a prominent person for either political, religious, or monetary reasons.
Capital punishment – the judicial killing of a human being for crimes.
Casualty – death (or injury) in wartime.
Collateral damage – Incidental killing of persons during a military attack that were not the object of attack.
Democide or
populicide – the
murder of any person or people by a government.
Extrajudicial killing – killing by government forces without due process. See also
Targeted killing .
Euthanasia or
mercy killing – the killing of any being with compassionate reasoning; e.g., significant injury or disease.
Familiaricide in commutatione eius possessio – the act of killing a family for their property and/or possessions (from
Latin : familiaris "of a household"; in commutatione eius "in exchange for"; and possessio "a possession or property").
Femicide , gynecide, gynaecide, or gynocide – the systematic killing of women.
Feticide – the killing of an embryo or fetus.
Fragging - the act of killing a fellow soldier.
Gendercide – the systematic killing of members of a specific sex or gender.
Genocide – the systematic extermination of an entire national, racial, religious, or ethnic group.
Homicide – the act of killing of a person (
Latin : homo "man").
Justifiable homicide – a defense to culpable homicide (criminal or negligent homicide).
Human sacrifice – the killing of a human for sacrificial, often religious, reasons.
Massacre ,
mass murder or
spree killing – the killing of many people.
Murder – the malicious and unlawful killing of a human by another human.
Manslaughter – murder, but under legally mitigating circumstances.
Meretricide - the act of killing a sex worker, oftentimes a female sex worker, but can apply to other genders. From latin merēre, meaning "to gain".
Omnicide – the act of killing all humans, to create intentional extinction of the human species (
Latin : omni "all, everyone").
Pedicide – the act of killing children.
Senicide or geronticide – the act of killing an elderly person.
Targeted killing – a form of assassination which is carried out by governments against their perceived enemies. See also
Extrajudicial killing .
Vaticide - the murder of a prophet.
Xenocide – the genocide of an entire
alien species . Often used in
science fiction , one famous example being the novel
Xenocide by
Orson Scott Card .
Mundicide – the genocide of an entire planet or similar celestial object. Various degrees of mundicide occur throughout the universe, caused by such things as supernovas, or in the realm of science-fiction;
The Dark Forest theory . An idea popularized by Chinese author,
Cixin Liu
Killing of animals, disease, and pests
Algaecide – a chemical agent that kills algae.
Acaricide – a chemical agent that kills mites.
Avicide – a chemical agent that kills birds.
Bactericide – a chemical agent that kills bacteria.
Biocide – a chemical agent that kills a broad spectrum of living organisms.
Fungicide – chemical agents or biological organisms used to kill or inhibit fungi or fungal spores.
Germicide – an agent that kills germs, especially pathogenic microorganisms; a disinfectant.
Herbicide – an agent that kills unwanted plants, a weed killer.
Insecticide – an agent that kills unwanted insects.
Larvicide (also larvacide ) – an insecticide targeted against the larval life stage of an insect.
Microbicide – an agent used to kill or reduce the infectiousness of microorganisms.
Miticide – a chemical to kill mites.
Nemacide (also nematicide , nematocide ) – a chemical to eradicate or kill nematodes.
Parasiticide – a general term to describe an agent used to destroy parasites.
Pediculicide – an agent that kills head lice.
Pesticide – a general term to describe an agent used to destroy or repel a pest.
Rodenticide - an agent that kills rodents (especially rats and mice).
Scabicide – a chemical agent for killing scabies.
Spermicide – a contraceptive agent to render sperm inert and prevent fertilization.
Teniacide (also taeniacide , tenicide ) – a chemical agent that kills tape worms.
Theriocide – the act of killing an animal by a human (
Ancient Greek : therion "wild animal, beast").
Vermicide – an agent used to kill parasitic intestinal worms.
Virucide (also viricide ) – an agent capable of destroying or inhibiting viruses.
Vulpicide (also vulpecide ) – the killing of a fox by methods other than by hunting it with hounds.
Killing of intangibles or inanimates
Ecocide – the destruction of the natural environment by such activity as war,
overexploitation of resources, or
pollution .
Famacide,
defamation , or slander – the killing of another's reputation.
Linguicide – intentionally causing the
death of a language .
Epistemicide – the systematic extermination of an entire knowledge system or intellectual heritage of a group, society or people.
Mundicide – the destruction of a planet (mundus is Latin for "world").
Urbicide – the destruction of a city or the stifling of urbanisation (urbs is Latin for "city").
Look up
-cide in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.