Holocaust /(?)/

Hol·o·caust

Holocaust

n.
  1. A burnt sacrifice; an offering, the whole of which was consumed by fire, among the Jews and some pagan nations.
  2. Sacrifice or loss of many lives, as by the burning of a theater or a ship.
  3. The mass killing of millions of Jews by the Nazis during the period from 1933 to 1945 in Germany and German-occupied lands; usually referred to as The Holocaust. In Hebrew, the same event is referred to by the word Shoah.