Synonyms for kill
Most common
put to death murder slaughter assassinate destroy obliterate crush suffocate
Synonyms by meaning
Verb
1. Assassinate — to put to death; to extinguish the life of
assassinate, slay formal, murder, slaughter, put to death, shoot down, take, carry off, end, do in informal, butcher, smite, put to sleep, execute, dispatch, despatch UK, finish off, down, drink down, defeat, smash, bump off US, dispose of
2. Destroy — to exert oneself to an excessive degree
destroy, annihilate informal, obliterate, wipe out, exterminate, neutralize, neutralise UK, ruin, eradicate, ravage, extinguish, blight, decimate dated, eliminate slang, bust one's ass vulgar slang US CA, bust one's arse UK
3. Break — to render inoperative
break, crush, disable, deactivate, cancel slang
4. Make away with — to use up or to waste
Definitions
- v. 1
To put to death; to extinguish the life of.
Smoking kills more people each year than alcohol and hard drugs combined.
- v. 2
To render inoperative.
He killed the engine and turned off the headlights, but remained in the car, waiting.
- v. 3
To use up or to waste.
I'm just doing this to kill time.
- v. 4
To exert oneself to an excessive degree.
Don't kill yourself raking the leaves now; we're due for a windstorm tonight.
Related words
- Word family
- killer killing
- Phrases
- kill file kill oneself one-hit kill kill-time kill zone dressed to kill kill it time to kill
Forms
- Past participle
- killed
e.g. killed → assassinated, slain, murdered, slaughtered…
Choose the right word
To kill is simply to deprive of life, human, animal, or vegetable, with no suggestion of how or why. To slay is to kill by a blow, or by a weapon.
J. C. Fernald, English Synonyms and Antonyms (1914)
Example sentences
- murder You don't have an alibi for the day of the murder.
- slaughter The slaughter of the prisoners was a barbarous act.
- assassinate I will assassinate you with only one of my looks.
- destroy Do you really think it will destroy my reputation?
- obliterate It's time to obliterate those walls of yours!
Popularity over time
| Word | 1850 → 2019 | Trend |
|---|---|---|
| kill | rising | |
| murder | rising | |
| slaughter | falling | |
| assassinate | rising | |
| destroy | steady |
Use in printed books, per decade from 1850 to 2019.
By length
- 3 letters
- end1
- 4 letters
- take1, down1, ruin2, slay1, cack
- 5 letters
- break1, waste1, crush1, smash1, lynch1, quell1, smite
- 6 letters
- murder2, defeat2, cancel2, squash1, blight1, ravage2, deaden2, devive
- 7 letters
- destroy2, execute3, butcher2, disable3
- 8 letters
- dispatch2, despatch, decimate3, immolate3
- 9 letters
- eliminate4, slaughter2, eradicate4, suffocate3, downstroy
- 10 letters
- neutralize3, extinguish3, deactivate4, annihilate4, obliterate4, neutralise
- 11 letters
- assassinate4, exterminate4
The small number after each word is its number of syllables (ruin2 = 2 syllables).