Standard Lemma guide
Definitions and examples are grouped by meaning. Pronunciation, history, word forms, translations, descendants, synonyms, antonyms, derived terms, and related words appear whenever the source provides them.
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noun
A great public sacrifice to the gods, originally of a hundred oxen; also, a great number of animals reserved for such a sacrifice.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: Ancient-Rome, historical
Qualifier: Ancient Greece
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
noun
A great public sacrifice in other religions; also, a great number of animals or people reserved for such a sacrifice.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: broadly, historical
Topics: lifestyle, religion
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
noun
A great number of animals, people, or things that are sacrificed or destroyed; any great sacrifice; also (generally), a large amount.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: figuratively, literary, poetic
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: abundance, battalion, arseload, assload, bellyload, boatload, brimful, busload, bucketful, bucketload, butt-ton, bumload, buttload, cartload, crapflood, crapload, deal, fuckload, fuckton, fuckwad, gob, great deal, hantle, heap, hecatomb, helluvalot, horseload, lashings, load, lot, mampus, many, mass, metric fuckton, metric shitload, mickle, mountain, muckle, multiplicity, multitude, pile, ream, shedload, shitflood, shitful, shitload, shitton, sight, slew, spadeloads, sum, superflux, ton, trainload, truckload, tun, vaultful, wagonload
Antonyms: none provided
verb
To provide (someone or something) with a hecatomb.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: transitive
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
noun
a great sacrifice; an ancient Greek or Roman sacrifice of 100 oxen
Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
Broader terms: sacrifice, ritual killing
History
The noun is a learned borrowing from Latin hecatombē (“great sacrifice of a hundred oxen, hecatomb”), from Ancient Greek ἑκατόμβη (hekatómbē, “great sacrifice of a hundred oxen, hecatomb; any animal sacrifice or large sacrifice”, from ἑκᾰτόν (hekătón, “hundred”) + βοῦς (boûs, “cattle, cow, ox”)). The verb is derived from the noun.
Across languages
31 source translations are retained for this English entry.
