n.
Pronunciation: ' ma-si-k ə r
Function: noun
Etymology: Middle French
Date: circa 1578
1 : the act or an instance of killing a number of usually helpless or unresisting human beings under circumstances of atrocity or cruelty
2 : a cruel or wanton murder
3 : a wholesale slaughter of animals
4 : an act of complete destruction <the author's massacre of traditional federalist presuppositions ― R. G. McCloskey>