'Holocaust' definitions:
Definition of 'holocaust'
(from WordNet)
noun
An act of mass destruction and loss of life (especially in war or by fire); "a nuclear holocaust"
noun
The mass murder of Jews under the German Nazi regime from 1941 until 1945 [syn: Holocaust, final solution]
Definition of 'Holocaust'
From: GCIDE
- Holocaust \Hol"o*caust\, n. [L. holocaustum, Gr. ?, neut. of ?, ?, burnt whole; "o'los whole + kaysto`s burnt, fr. kai`ein to burn (cf. Caustic): cf. F. holocauste.]
- 1. A burnt sacrifice; an offering, the whole of which was consumed by fire, among the Jews and some pagan nations. --Milton. [1913 Webster]
- 2. Sacrifice or loss of many lives, as by the burning of a theater or a ship.
- Note: [An extended use not authorized by careful writers.] [1913 Webster]
- 3. Specifically: The mass killing of millions of Jews by the Nazis during the period from 1933 to 1945 in Germany and German-occupied lands; usually referred to as {The Holocaust}. In Hebrew, the same event is referred to by the word Shoah. [PJC]
Synonyms of 'holocaust'
From: Moby Thesaurus
- annihilation,
- bloodbath,
- blue ruin,
- breakup,
- burnt offering,
- butchery,
- carnage,
- clawing,
- collection,
- conflagration,
- consumption,
- cruciation,
- crucifixion,
- damnation,
- decimation,
- depredation,
- desolation,
- despoilment,
- despoliation,
- destruction,
- devastation,
- disintegration,
- disorganization,
- disruption,
- dissolution,
- drink offering,
- elimination,
- eradication,
- ex voto offering,
- extermination,
- extinction,
- final solution,
- fire,
- genocide,
- havoc,
- heave offering,
- hecatomb,
- hell,
- hell upon earth,
- horror,
- human sacrifice,
- immolation,
- incense,
- infanticide,
- inferno,
- laceration,
- lancination,
- libation,
- mactation,
- martyrdom,
- mass destruction,
- mass murder,
- massacre,
- nightmare,
- oblation,
- offering,
- offertory,
- passion,
- peace offering,
- perdition,
- persecution,
- piacular offering,
- pogrom,
- purgatory,
- race extermination,
- race-murder,
- rack,
- ravage,
- ruin,
- ruination,
- sacramental offering,
- sacrifice,
- saturnalia of blood,
- scapegoat,
- self-immolation,
- self-sacrifice,
- shambles,
- slaughter,
- spoliation,
- suttee,
- sutteeism,
- thank offering,
- torment,
- torture,
- undoing,
- vandalism,
- votive offering,
- waste,
- whole offering,
- wholesale murder,
- wrack,
- wrack and ruin,
- wreck