homicide

IPA/ˈhɒmɪsaɪd/
KK[hˈɑməsˌaɪd]IPA/ˈhɑːmɪsaɪd/

homicide — noun

  • homicidesingular
  • homicidesplural

1. the deliberate crime of one person ending another person's life, treated as an o

1.nounC1
Definition

the deliberate crime of one person ending another person's life, treated as an offence that the courts must decide upon.

Example

Detective Walid was assigned to investigate three homicides in the city last month.

countable plural usage for individual cases

The young driver was charged with homicide after the deadly crash on the highway.

collocation: charged with homicide

Common collocations
  • commit a homicide
  • investigate a homicide
  • charged with homicide
  • the homicide of
Synonyms
  • murder

    everyday word for unlawful killing with intent; less formal than homicide

  • manslaughter

    killing without prior intention; a narrower legal category

  • killing

    neutral umbrella term; covers any death caused by a person, lawful or not

Grammar Patterns

a homicide

charged with homicide

Usage Note

More common in American English and in legal contexts; British media tend to use 'murder' or 'manslaughter' as everyday terms. Often appears with adjectives that describe the legal category (justifiable, vehicular) or the police process (unsolved, suspected).

Common Mistakes

He did a homicide on his neighbour.
He committed a homicide against his neighbour.
the standard verb is 'commit', not 'do'.
The accident was a homicide.
The accident was ruled a homicide.
calling a death a homicide normally requires an official determination.

2. the section of a police force whose job is to look into killings — used as a sho

2.nounC1
Definition

the section of a police force whose job is to look into killings — used as a short label for the team rather than the crime itself.

Example

Sana transferred from narcotics to homicide after eight long years on the drug squad.

transfer to homicide (department name)

Two detectives from homicide arrived at the apartment before sunrise on Tuesday morning.

detectives from homicide

Common collocations
  • work in homicide
  • call homicide
  • Homicide Division
  • Homicide Unit
Synonyms

Grammar Patterns

Homicide [Division/Unit]

work in homicide

Usage Note

Distinguish from sense 1: here 'homicide' refers to the police unit, not the crime. Often appears bare (without 'the') as a department label, e.g. 'call homicide', 'work in homicide', or in fixed names like 'Homicide Division'.

Common Mistakes

She works in the homicide.
She works in homicide.' / 'She works in the Homicide Division.
drop the article when using it as a bare department label.

Word family

  • homicidal
    adjectiveC2

Synonym discussion

Sense: noun/1

All four words describe a person dying at someone else's hands, but they sit at different points on the legal and emotional scale. 'Killing' is the broadest and most neutral — it covers any death caused by a person, deliberate or accidental, lawful or unlawful. 'Homicide' is the formal umbrella term used by police, courts, and news media in the United States; it states the fact of a person-caused death without yet judging whether it was a crime. 'Murder' narrows that to a deliberate, unlawful killing done with intent — the most serious charge in most legal systems. 'Manslaughter' covers the in-between cases: a person did cause the death, but without the planning or intent that murder requires, as when a driver kills a pedestrian through reckless speeding. A newsreader might say 'police are investigating a homicide', then later report that prosecutors 'charged the suspect with murder' once intent was established.

homicide ↗murder ↗manslaughter ↗killing ↗

Common collocations

Nouns

  • homicide rate
  • homicide investigation
  • homicide victim
  • homicide detective
  • homicide case

Phrases

  • commit homicide
  • rule a death a homicide
  • solve a homicide

Prepositions

  • the homicide of
  • charged with homicide

Etymology

LatinOld FrenchMiddle EnglishEnglish

Borrowed into English in the early fourteenth century from Old French 'homicide', itself from Latin 'homicidium' — built from 'homo' meaning 'human being' and the suffix '-cidium' meaning 'a killing' (related to the verb 'caedere', to cut down or slay). The same Latin root gives English '-cide' words like 'suicide', 'genocide', and 'pesticide'. Originally the word could mean both the act of killing and the person who killed; modern usage in American English keeps mainly the 'act' sense.