Dictionary

carnage en · NOUN

Pronunciation

• /ˈkɑɹ.nɪd͡ʒ/ (US)
• /ˈkɑː.nɪdʒ/ (UK)
• (Australia) audio

Etymology

Borrowed from Middle French carnage, from a Norman or Picard variant Old Northern French) of Old French charnage, from char (“flesh”), or from Vulgar Latin *carnaticum (“slaughter of animals”), itself from Latin carnem, accusative of caro (“flesh”). By surface analysis, Latin carn- + -age.

Meanings

1. (uncountable, usually) Death and destruction.
   • There was carnage after the school play ended with 96 deaths.
   • Unleash the wolves / Carnage has no rules / Comparison, competition / We'll bury one and all, all 2007, “Wolves”, in Robb Flynn (lyrics), The Blackening, performed by Machine Head, Track 7:
   • Carnage consumes all we’ve ever loved / The innocent blistered by the flame / Trial by fire we burn in shame 2019, “The Sea of Tragic Beasts”, performed by Fit for an Autopsy:
2. (uncountable, usually) The corpses, gore, etc. that remain after a massacre.
3. (figuratively, uncountable, usually) Any great loss by a team; a game in which one team wins overwhelmingly.
   • The game against Sri Lanka and Australia was carnage with Australia winning by 287 runs.
4. (figuratively, slang, uncountable, usually) A heavy drinking binge and its aftermath.
   • The lads had recently returned from a wild summer on the party island of Ibiza, an increasingly popular hotspot for working-class British youth. But this was not a scene of drunken holiday carnage in tacky discos. 2014, Simon Spence, Happy Mondays: Excess All Areas:
   • Within three hours we'd drunk the place dry. Miraculously, we all made it back on the bus, but I've never seen a more bacchanalian scene of wanton debauchery than the ride back to the hotel. It was total carnage. 2015, Adam Jones, Bomb: My Autobiography:
5. (figuratively, slang, uncountable, usually) Any chaotic situation.
   • Mothers and children trapped in poverty in our inner cities, rusted out factories, scattered like tombstones across the across the landscape of our nation, an education system flush with cash, but which leaves our young and beautiful students deprived of all knowledge, and the crime, and the gangs, and the drugs that have stolen too many lives and robbed our country of so much unrealized potential. This American carnage stops right here and stops right now. 2017 January 20, Donald Trump, The Inaugural Address:

Forms

Deriveds

carnaged · dot-carnage

Synonyms

massacre · rampage (a drinking binge) · bloodbath · bloodbath · massacre

Translations (54)

ja 修羅 (death and destruction) · el εκατόμβη (death and destruction) · gd àr (death and destruction) · bg клане (death and destruction) · es mortandad (death and destruction) · pt carnagem (death and destruction) · ota قان (death and destruction) · ko 대학살 (death and destruction) · ru резня́ (death and destruction) · cmn 屠杀 (death and destruction) · el μακελειό (death and destruction) · la strāgēs (death and destruction) · it carnaio (death and destruction) · ang wæl (death and destruction) · pt massacre (death and destruction) · es escabechina (death and destruction) · bg сеч (death and destruction) · sh pokolj (death and destruction) · de Abschlachtung (death and destruction) · ru побо́ище (death and destruction) · ja 大虐殺 (death and destruction) · el ανθρωποσφαγή (death and destruction) · fr carnage (death and destruction) · gd marbhadh (death and destruction) · es degollina (death and destruction) · cs masakr (death and destruction) · cs řež (death and destruction) · es carnicería (what remains after a massacre) · ga eirleach (death and destruction) · cmn 惨案 (death and destruction) · is eyðing (death and destruction) · pl rzeź (death and destruction) · es mortaldad (death and destruction) · cmn 大屠殺 /大屠杀 (death and destruction) · ca carnatge (death and destruction) · mi tārukenga (death and destruction) · fi verilöyly (death and destruction) · cmn 大屠杀 (death and destruction) · kk қырғын (death and destruction) · nl bloedbad (death and destruction) · de Gemetzel (death and destruction) · sh masakr (death and destruction) · it carneficina (death and destruction) · es carnaje (death and destruction) · hu vérontás (death and destruction) · cs krveprolití (death and destruction) · ru бо́йня (death and destruction) · pl jatka (death and destruction) · mi tārukenga (what remains after a massacre) · cs jatka (death and destruction) · cmn 慘案 /惨案 (death and destruction) · he מרחץ דמים (death and destruction) · cmn 屠殺 /屠杀 (death and destruction) · es carnicería (death and destruction)