Definition

Noun: 1. An organized, often officially encouraged massacre or persecution of a particular ethnic group, especially one targeting Jewish people. - This term historically refers to violent attacks, including destruction of property, assault, and murder, directed against a specific community, with Jews being the most frequent historical target. The attacks are typically carried out with the tacit or explicit approval of authorities.

Usage

• The word is used as a countable noun to describe specific historical events or acts of mass violence.
• It is most accurately applied to describe the anti-Jewish riots in the Russian Empire and Eastern Europe, but can be used more broadly for similar organized persecutions of other minority groups.

Examples

• Noun:
  • The Kishinev pogrom of 1903 resulted in the deaths of dozens of Jewish people.
  • Historians study the pogroms to understand the roots of ethnic violence.
  • The mob carried out a brutal pogrom against the minority community.

Advanced Usage

• "to be a victim of a pogrom": to suffer during such an organized attack.
  • Her grandparents were victims of a pogrom in Eastern Europe.
• "pogrom-like violence": violence that resembles or has the characteristics of a pogrom.
  • The sudden outbreak of pogrom-like violence terrified the population.

Variants and Related Words

• Pogromist (noun, rare): A person who participates in or instigates a pogrom.
• While "pogrom" is a specific historical term, related concepts include genocide (the deliberate killing of a large group of people), ethnic cleansing (the forced removal of an ethnic group from an area), and massacre (an indiscriminate and brutal slaughter of people).

Synonyms

• Massacre: An indiscriminate and brutal slaughter of people.
• Persecution: Hostility and ill-treatment, especially because of race or political or religious beliefs.
• Atrocity: An extremely wicked or cruel act, typically involving physical violence or injury.

Related Phrases and Idioms

• To unleash a pogrom: To initiate or allow such violent persecution to begin.
  • The inflammatory rhetoric helped to unleash a pogrom.
• The wave of pogroms: Referring to a series of such attacks occurring in a specific period or region.
  • The wave of pogroms in 1881 forced many families to flee.

Noun

1. organized persecution of an ethnic group (especially Jews)