The difference between Decimation and Massacre

When used as nouns, decimation means the killing or punishment of every tenth person, usually by lot, whereas massacre means the killing of a considerable number where little or no resistance can be made, with indiscriminate violence, without necessity, and contrary to civilized norms.

Massacre is also verb with the meaning: to kill in considerable numbers where little or no resistance can be made, with indiscriminate violence, without necessity, and contrary to civilized norms.

check bellow for the other definitions of Decimation and Massacre

  1. Decimation as a noun (strictly):

    The killing or punishment of every tenth person, usually by lot.

  2. Decimation as a noun (generally):

    The killing or destruction of any large portion of a population.

  3. Decimation as a noun:

    A tithe or the act of tithing.

  4. Decimation as a noun (mathematics):

    The creation of a new sequence comprising only every nth element of a source sequence.

  5. Decimation as a noun (telecommunications):

    A digital signal-processing technique for reducing the number of samples in a discrete-time signal.

  1. Massacre as a noun:

    The killing of a considerable number where little or no resistance can be made, with indiscriminate violence, without necessity, and contrary to civilized norms.

    Examples:

    "[[w:St Bartholomew's Day Massacre ''St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre'']]"

    "[[w:Saint Valentine's Day Massacre ''St. Valentine's Day Massacre'']]"

    "[[w:Amritsar Massacre ''Amritsar Massacre'']]"

  2. Massacre as a noun (obsolete):

    Murder.

  3. Massacre as a noun (figuratively):

    Any overwhelming defeat, as in a game or sport.

  1. Massacre as a verb (transitive):

    To kill in considerable numbers where little or no resistance can be made, with indiscriminate violence, without necessity, and contrary to civilized norms.

  2. Massacre as a verb (figuratively):

    To win so decisively it is in the manner of so slaughtering one's opponent.

  3. Massacre as a verb (figuratively):

    To give a performance so poorly it is in the manner of so slaughtering the musical piece, play etc being performed.

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