internecine
Prepare yourself, because internecine is a gloomy word. It’s an adjective you’d use to describe a bloody battle where both sides are badly hurt. On a lighter note, it can also mean a conflict that tears an organization apart.
A combination of the Latin inter- ("among") and necare ("to kill"), internecine conflicts are full of blood and death, and they end up destroying everyone involved, which sounds fair but also awful. Many wars are internecine, as are most Shakespearean tragedies and Hollywood action films. An internecine meeting would be one where everyone gets mad, says really horrible things, and then suddenly leaves, plotting revenge. It’s probably the last meeting for that group, which might be a good thing.
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(of conflict) within a group or organization“an internecine feud among proxy holders”synonyms:internalhappening or arising or located within some limits or especially surface
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characterized by bloodshed and carnage for both sides“internecine war”synonyms:bloodyhaving or covered with or accompanied by blood
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Vocabulary lists containing internecine
In this story, a classics teacher at an elite prep school must interrogate his own ethics when he suspects that one of his privileged students is cheating.
In this classic of the transcendentalist movement, Thoreau explains what he learned by living simply and in seclusion near a pond in eastern Massachusetts.
Marie-Laure is a blind French girl who flees the Nazi occupation of Paris. Werner Pfennig is a young orphan living in a German mining town. In this Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, their lives intertwine in unexpected ways as they try to survive the havoc of war.