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killing

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killing¹

  • /ˈkɪl.ɪŋ/

Rhymes with -ɪlɪŋ

Where it comes from

From Middle English kyllyng; equivalent to kill + -ing.

adjective more killing · most killing

  1. That literally deprives of life; lethal, deadly, fatal.
  2. dated, idiomatic Devastatingly attractive. Should true Proportion ev'ry Mortal grace, / And Semetry be seen in ev'ry Face: / Beauty no longer would be thought divine, / Nor would its Charms with half the Lustre shine: / No courtly Dame a killing Look could boast, / If once the Foils of Homeliness were lost.
  3. idiomatic, informal That makes one ‘die’ with laughter; very funny. Livia found her ‘killing’, and derived such amusement from her Martinique French that he was forced to enjoy her as well.

noun killings

  1. countable, uncountable The act of killing. In fact, Tarzan had never killed for “pleasure,” nor to him was there pleasure in killing.
  2. countable, uncountable An instance of someone being killed. The outrage over the brutal killings of peaceful demonstrators in Lhasa in March 1989 quickly faded after the massacres in Beijing in June.
  3. countable, informal, uncountable, usually, as make a killing A large amount of money. He made a killing on the stock market.

Similar: killing

verb

  1. gerund, participle, present present participle and gerund of kill

Killing²

proper noun

  1. A surname.

Thesaurus

Closest in meaning: cleanup, exhausting, debilitating, draining, humourous, humorous, sidesplitting, violent death, destruction, extermination, carnage, slain, murdered, mort, deadly, homicidal

noun

Similar: killing

Translations

Every language

adj lethal, deadly, fatal

Españolmortal
हिन्दीघातक ghātak
Portuguêsmortal
Italianomortale
Русскийуби́йственный ubíjstvennyj, смерте́льный smertélʹnyj
العربيةمُمِيت mumīt, قَاتِل qātil

adj devastatingly attractive

Portuguêsde matar

noun the act of killing

Españolmatanza, matazón

noun instance of someone being killed

日本語殺すこと korosu koto
中文殺 /杀 shā
Portuguêsassassinato
Françaismeurtre
DeutschTöten, Erlegen
Italianouccisione, omicidio, assassinio
Русскийуби́йство ubíjstvo, убо́й ubój, умерщвле́ние umerščvlénije, убие́ние ubijénije, лише́ние жи́зни lišénije žízni
العربيةقَتْل qatl

noun large amount of money

DeutschReibach

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Cite this
MLA

"killing." Wiktionary, via Micwyn, micwyn.com/word/killing. Accessed 6 Nov. 2026.

APA

killing. (n.d.). In Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Retrieved November 6, 2026, from https://micwyn.com/word/killing

Chicago

"killing." Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Accessed November 6, 2026. https://micwyn.com/word/killing.

BibTeX
@misc{killing_2026,
  title = {killing},
  howpublished = {Wiktionary, via Micwyn},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://micwyn.com/word/killing},
  urldate = {2026-11-06}
}