Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun The systematic elimination of an ethnic group or groups from a region or society, as by deportation, forced emigration, or genocide.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun The
mass extermination orexpulsion ofpeople belonging to one ethnic orreligious group by those of another.
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun the mass expulsion and killing of one ethnic or religious group in an area by another ethnic or religious group in that area
Etymologies
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
From ethnic + cleansing. Perhaps compare Serbo-Croatian etničko čišćenje, though this is probably attested later. Originally used of (and still chiefly associated with) the wars in former Yugoslavia during the 1990s.
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