Word.ws English Dictionary

ktenology

ktenology noun: the science of putting people to death.

Noun

ktenology (uncountable)

  1. (rare) The science of putting people to death.
    • The triumph of ktenology was reached in the development by Professor Dr. Heissmeyer, one of Dr. Gebhardt's associates at the SS hospital of Hohenlychen, of intravenous injections of a suspension of live tubercle bacilli […]1948, Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease, volume 108, page 348
    • On 21 and 22 January Alexander met Ivy to discuss the issue of ktenology.2004, P. Weindling, Nazi Medicine and the Nuremberg Trials

Origin of ktenology

Coined by Leo Alexander (1905–1985), American psychiatrist and neurologist, from Ancient Greek roots.

Questions about ktenology

What does ktenology mean?
Ktenology means the science of putting people to death.
What part of speech is ktenology?
Ktenology is a noun.

Words near ktenology in the dictionary

  1. Ksyusha
  2. kt
  3. kt.
  4. KTAS
  5. ktenasite
  6. ktenology
  7. ktetic
  8. ktetics
  9. ktetor
  10. ktetors
  11. ktetory

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: ktenology (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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