Word.ws English Dictionary

counterkilling

counterkilling noun: a killing carried out in response to another killing.

Noun

counterkilling (plural counterkillings)

  1. A killing carried out in response to another killing.
    • The mob pummeled the men suspected of being thugs, and this normally tranquil spot exploded into a melee of killings and counterkillings that left nearly 30 people dead.2009 April 22, Jeffrey Gettleman, “Kenyan Town Strikes Back Against Its Tormenters”, in New York Times

Forms of counterkilling

pluralcounterkillings

Origin of counterkilling

From counter- + killing.

Questions about counterkilling

What does counterkilling mean?
Counterkilling means a killing carried out in response to another killing.
What part of speech is counterkilling?
Counterkilling is a noun.
What is the plural of counterkilling?
The plural of counterkilling is counterkillings.

Words near counterkilling in the dictionary

  1. counterjinx
  2. counterjumper
  3. counterjumpers
  4. counterjustification
  5. counterjustifications
  6. counterkilling
  7. counterkillings
  8. counterknowledge
  9. counterland
  10. counterlanguage
  11. counterlanguages

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: counterkilling (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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