Meaning & use
murder
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Meanings
nouncountable or uncountablelegal
The crime of deliberately killing another person.
Grammar: Uncountable when talking about the crime (guilty of murder); countable for particular cases: two murders.
Patterns
- commit murder
- the murder of someone
The police are investigating the murder of a shopkeeper.
He was found guilty of murder and sent to prison.
There were three murders in the town last year.
verbtransitivelegal
To kill a person on purpose and unlawfully.
Grammar: Takes an object; usually passive when the victim is the subject: he was murdered.
Patterns
- murder someone
- be murdered by someone
The man was murdered outside his home.
Investigators believe she was murdered by a relative.
The book tells how a famous banker murdered his partner.
verbtransitiveinformalhumorous
To ruin something badly through poor performance, such as spoiling a song or a language.
Grammar: Informal and humorous; the object is a song, a word or a task.
Patterns
- murder a song
- murder a language
The singer murdered the national anthem at the game.
I murdered the pronunciation of her name.
My little brother murdered the piano piece at the recital.
nounsingularinformal
An experience that is extremely difficult, tiring or unpleasant.
Grammar: Used after be, informally: the traffic was murder.
Patterns
- be murder
- be murder on something
The morning commute was murder because of the rain.
These new shoes are murder on my feet.
Finding a parking space downtown is murder on Saturdays.
Word forms
| plural | murders |
|---|---|
| third person singular | murders |
| past tense | murdered |
| past participle | murdered |
| -ing form | murdering |
Common combinations
- commit murder
- She was accused of committing murder.
- murder trial
- The murder trial lasted three weeks.
- murder weapon
- Police never found the murder weapon.
- attempted murder
- He was charged with attempted murder.
- murder investigation
- A murder investigation began that night.
Synonyms and how they differ
- homicide
- Homicide is the legal and police term for any killing of a person, even lawful ones, so it is broader than murder.
- slay
- Slay is literary or journalistic and suggests a violent killing, often in stories.
- assassinate
- Assassinate applies to murdering an important or political figure.
- manslaughter
- Manslaughter is an unlawful killing without planned intent, so it is a lesser crime than murder.
Word family
Commonly confused: murder or manslaughter? murder or homicide?
murder vs manslaughter
Manslaughter is an unlawful killing without the intent or planning that murder involves, and it carries a lighter sentence.
murder vs homicide
Homicide is any killing of a person, including accidental or lawful ones, so not every homicide is murder.
Practice
The driver was not planning to hurt anyone, so the court called the crime manslaughter rather than ___.
Choose one answer.
Murder requires deliberate intent to kill. Manslaughter lacks that intent. Suicide, assault and theft are different acts.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “murder”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.