homicide:
(plural: ‘homicides‘; for the right pronunciation of this word, please click here)
note: ‘Homicide’ is a very formal word and mostly used by the police and in the court of law, and ‘homicide’ is more commonly used as a noun to refer to the “act of murder/killing/unnatural death“.
(less commonly in the present day usage) a person who kills/murders another person; a murderer,
e.g.
The police have released the sketch of a homicide and requested the locals to come forward with any information they have concerning the death of an industrialist.
For an informative article that explains what exactly is homicide and the rare use of this word in reference to a person who killed another one, please click here.
Note 1: The difference between ‘homicide’ and ‘murder’ is that ‘homicide’ is mostly used in America to refer to a person’s act of killing another person (and the person), either on purpose and planned or by accident, and is mostly used by the police and in the courts of law in many countries in the world; ‘murder’, on the other hand, is a person’s act of killing another person (the person is called a “murderer or killer”) and is purely intentional, i.e. the killer/murderer plans and carries out the act of killing either for money or out of vengeance! The name of the police department that deals with murder or homicide is always called a ‘homicide department’ but never ‘murder department’!
Note 2: The word homicide is more commonly used as an adjective to refer to people or things involved in the killing of one or more persons by one or more persons/killers, e.g. a ‘homicide suspect’, a person who is suspected by the police as the killer; a ‘homicide detective’, a police officer who investigates unnatural death cases; a ‘homicide victim’, a person who is killed by another person and a ‘homicide case’, a case of the killing or dying of a person or persons registered by the police.
Note 2: The word homicide is more commonly used as an adjective to refer to people or things involved in the killing of one or more persons by one or more persons/killers, e.g. a ‘homicide suspect’, a person who is suspected by the police as the killer; a ‘homicide detective’, a police officer who investigates unnatural death cases; a ‘homicide victim’, a person who is killed by another person and a ‘homicide case’, a case of the killing or dying of a person or persons registered by the police.
Note: A “patricide” is a person who kills or has killed his/her own father; a ‘matricide‘ is a person who kills or has killed his/her own mother; a ‘parricide or parenticide‘ is a person who kills or has killed his/her own parents and any other close relatives; a “fratricide” is a person who kills or has killed his/her own brother; a ‘sororicide‘ is a person who kills or has killed his/her own sister; a “uxoricide” is a man who kills or has killed his wife; a “mariticide or viricide” is a woman who kills or has killed her husband; a “filicide or prolicide” is a person who kills or has killed his/her own children; a ‘regicide‘ is a person who kills/murders or who is responsible for the death of a king or a queen and an “infanticide” is a person who kills very young baby/infant. And all the ‘..cides’ are used to refer not only to the persons involved but also to ‘the act of killing somebody’.
Note: Note very well that not all words that end in ‘cide’ refer to killers or killings of people; for instance, ‘fungicide’ and ‘pesticide’ are chemicals that are used to kill fungi and pests that harm plants and crops. For an article that explains the difference between different ‘cides’ in this context, please click here.
