internecine
UK/ˌɪntəˈniːsaɪn//ˌɪntɚˈnɛsin/
internecine adjective: mutually destructive; most often applied to warfare.
Adjective
internecine (not comparable)
- Mutually destructive; most often applied to warfare.
- Internecine strife in Gaza claimed its most senior victim yesterday when militants assassinated one of the most hated security chiefs there.
- Characterized by struggle within a group, usually applied to an ethnic or familial relationship.
- The Mongol people were plagued by internecine conflict until Genghis Khan unified them by focusing their aggression outwards on other peoples.
- During the year of my engagement — 1869 — while I was out on the lecture platform, the daily letter that came for me generally brought me news from the front — by which expression I refer to the internecine war that was always going on in a friendly way between these two orthographists about the...c. 1900, Mark Twain, Autobiography of Mark Twain, published 2010
internecine meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Urdu and Bengali
internecine in Hindi
- mutually destructive
- अन्तरवधीय antaravdhīya
internecine in Tamil
- உட்பூசல் சம்பந்தப்பட்ட, ஒன்றையொன்று அழிக்கும், கேடு விளைக்கும்
internecine in Urdu
- ہلاکت آور, جان لیوا, خون ریز, خونی, مہلک, تباہ کن
internecine in Bengali
- পরস্পর বিধ্বংসী
More languagesFewer languages
- internecine in Malayalam
- പരസ്പര വിനാശകരമായ, ഹാനികരമായ, നശിപ്പിക്കുന്ന, മാരകമായ
- internecine in Kannada
- ಪರಸ್ಪರ ವಿಧ್ವಂಸಕ, ಅನೋನ್ಯ ಮಾರಕ, ಅಂತಃಕಲಹದ, ವಿಧ್ವಂಸಕ
Origin of internecine
Borrowed from Latin internecīnus (“deadly”), from internecium (“a massacre, bloodbath; an eradication”) + -īnus. In Latin, the sememe 'between' was here not expressed by the prefix, it instead either had a somewhat emphatic meaning or meant "down, under", comparable to its use in other Latin terms related to death: see interficiō and intereō. The English current sense is thus a reanalysis of the Latin through English inter-.
Words that rhyme with internecine
48 more rhymesFewer rhymes
- glean
- between
- byzantine
- canteen
- greene
- preen
- Racine
- careen
- intervene
- lean
- wean
- Christine
- obscene
- routine
- skene
- spleen
- submarine
- cuisine
- gasoline
- irene
- red bean
- serene
- -ene
- baleen
- demean
- eleventeen
- fascine
- gombeen
- latrine
- pristine
- Qazvin
- sheen
- tangerine
- unclean
- unseen
- vaccine
- amine
- aquamarine
- Beane
- beseen
- bottine
- chopine
- Enigma machine
- Eugene
- gene
- in between
- jean
- lien
Questions about internecine
- What does internecine mean?
- Internecine means mutually destructive; most often applied to warfare.
- What is internecine in Hindi?
- Internecine in Hindi is अन्तरवधीय (antaravdhīya). See Internecine meaning in Hindi.
- What part of speech is internecine?
- Internecine is an adjective.
- How do you pronounce internecine?
- Internecine is pronounced /ˌɪntəˈniːsaɪn/ (UK).
Words near internecine in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: internecine (page history and authors); internecine (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); internecine (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); Internecine (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); internecine (Malayalam Wiktionary) (page history and authors); internecine (Kannada Wiktionary) (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: en-us-internecine.ogg.
Cite this entry: “internecine.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/internecine. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.