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verbicide

/ˈvərbəˌsaɪd/
IPA guide

Other forms: verbicides

If someone you're talking with accuses you of verbicide, they mean that you've completely and intentionally twisted the meaning of a word. People may do this to mislead others, justify their behavior, or win an argument.

Some would also say that awesome, as in "That place sells awesome burgers," is an example of verbicide, since the word has been so overused that it has lost its true meaning and has nothing to do with awe anymore. But nobody "killed" or changed the meaning on purpose to mislead people — it just happened over time. Verbicide literally means "word killing," from Latin verbum, "word," plus -cide, "killing." Homicide and herbicide are other words ending in -cide.

Definitions of verbicide
  1. noun
    someone who deliberately twists or destroys the meaning of words
  2. noun
    the act of deliberately destroying or twisting a word’s meaning
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