Word.ws English Dictionary

fratricide

fratricide noun: the killing of one's brother (or sister).

Noun (1)

fratricide (countable and uncountable, plural fratricides)

  1. The killing of one's brother (or sister).
    • The new accusation brought by Urban against Manfred of murdering his sister-in-law's embassador – it may be observed that, tacitly, he acquits him of parricide, fratricide, and nepoticide – requires a little explanation.1856, Mrs. William Busk, Mediæval Popes, Emperors, Kings, and Crusaders: Or, Germany, Italy and Palestine, from A.D. 1125 to A.D. 1268, volume IV, London: Hookham and Sons, →OCLC, page 294
    • Terms related to familicide include filicide (the killing of one's child or children), uxoricide (the killing of one's wife), fratricide or sororicide (the killing of one's brother or sister), avunculicide (the killing of one's uncle), and nepoticide (the killing of one's nephew).2014, Albert Lee Strickland, “Familicide”, in Michael John Brennan, editor, The A–Z of Death and Dying: Social, Medical, and Cultural Aspects, Santa Barbara, Calif.: Greenwood Publishing Group...
  2. (broadly) The intentional or unintentional killing of a comrade in arms.
    • From January on, Third Army also spent a good deal of energy trying to solve the problem of fratricide, the killing or injuring of one's own forces by what is ironically called 'friendly fire,'[…]1999, Richard M. Swain, Lucky War: Third Army in Desert Storm, DIANE Publishing, page 180
    • Such a press of arms invites many opportunities for unintentional fratricide.2007 September 25, Bungie, Halo 3, Microsoft Game Studios, Xbox 360, level/area: Terminal Six (Legendary)
  3. (broadly) The undesirable situation where the separate missiles from a MIRV interfere with each other as they explode.

Noun (2)

fratricide (plural fratricides)

  1. A person who commits fratricide.
    • Can Signorio was twice a fratricide, the last time when he lay upon his death-bed: his tomb bears upon its gables the images of six virtues, — Faith, Hope, Charity, Prudence, and (I believe) Justice and Fortitude.1853, John Ruskin, “Roman Renaissance”, in The Stones of Venice, volume III (The Fall), London: Smith, Elder, and Co., […], →OCLC, § LVI, page 73
    • The conversion of Russia to Christianity was effected, it would seem by a monster of cruelty and lust. That Vladimir (980–1015) was a fratricide, who maintained 3,500 concubines, has not prevented his canonization as a saint.1936, H. A. L. Fisher, A History of Europe, Edward Arnold Publishers, page 376
    Synonyms:
    brother-slayer

fratricide meaning in Hindi, Urdu, Bengali and Kannada

fratricide in Hindi

killing of one's sibling
भ्रातृहत्या bhrātŕhatyā
person who commits fratricide
भ्रातृहत्यारा bhrātŕhatyārā

fratricide in Urdu

killing of one's sibling
برادر کشی barādar kuśī

fratricide in Bengali

fratricide
ভ্রাতৃহত্যা bhratrihotta

fratricide in Kannada

ಒಡಹುಟ್ಟು ಕೊಲೆ
More languagesFewer languages
fratricide in Sanskrit
भ्रातृहत्या bhrātṛhatyā
fratricide in Tagalog
pratrisidyo, pratrisida
fratricide in Indonesian
fratrisida
fratricide in Persian
برادرکشی berâdarkoši

Synonyms of fratricide

Forms of fratricide

pluralfratricides

Origin of fratricide

From Middle French fratricide or its etymon Latin frātricīdium.

From Middle English fratricide, from Middle French fratricide or its etymon Latin frātricīda.

Words formed from fratricide

Questions about fratricide

What does fratricide mean?
Fratricide means the killing of one's brother (or sister).
What is fratricide in Hindi?
Fratricide in Hindi is भ्रातृहत्या (bhrātŕhatyā), भ्रातृहत्यारा (bhrātŕhatyārā). See Fratricide meaning in Hindi.
What part of speech is fratricide?
Fratricide is a noun.
What is the plural of fratricide?
The plural of fratricide is fratricides.

Words near fratricide in the dictionary

  1. fratresses
  2. fratriarchal
  3. fratriarchy
  4. fratricidal
  5. fratricidally
  6. fratricide
  7. fratricides
  8. fratries
  9. fratry
  10. frats
  11. Fratte

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: fratricide (page history and authors); ভ্রাতৃহত্যা (Bengali) (page history and authors); fratricide (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors); भ्रातृहत्या (Sanskrit) (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.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-fratricide.wav.

Cite this entry: “fratricide.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/fratricide. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.