/hek"euh tohm', -toohm'/ , n.
1. (in ancient Greece and Rome) a public sacrifice of 100 oxen to the gods.
2. any great slaughter: the hecatombs of modern wars.
[ 1585-95; hecatombe hekatómbe hekatombwa, equiv. to hékaton one hundred + * -bwa, taken to be a deriv. of boûs ox (see COW 1 ) ]