pogrom

1 of 2

noun

po·​grom pə-ˈgräm How to pronounce pogrom (audio)
-ˈgrəm,
pō-;
ˈpō-grəm,
ˈpä- How to pronounce pogrom (audio)
: an organized massacre of helpless people
specifically : such a massacre of Jews

pogrom

2 of 2

verb

pogromed; pogroming; pogroms

transitive verb

: to massacre or destroy in a pogrom

Examples of pogrom in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web
Noun
My great-grandfather escaped the pogroms in Poland and settled in East London in 1910. Hazlitt, 6 Mar. 2024 Then came Russian Jewish migrants, fleeing the pogroms of tsarist Russia; and then, finally, Polish, German and Austrian Jewish people escaping the Nazis. Anastasia Tsioulcas, NPR, 29 Feb. 2024 Meteoric Rise And Omission Janet Sobel (b. 1893; Dnipro, Ukraine) emigrated with her mother and two siblings to New York in 1908 after her father was killed in one of Ukraine’s many pogroms. Chadd Scott, Forbes, 22 Feb. 2024 Last spring, the school board in Santa Ana Unified, in Orange County, approved a 10th-grade ethnic studies class that covers the displacement of Native American tribes, gentrification in American cities and early 20th-century Russian pogroms of Jews. Dana Goldstein, New York Times, 16 Feb. 2024 This horrific pogrom creates the fulcrum for Słobodzianek’s play, which follows ten classmates in Jedwabne, five Catholic and five Jewish, from early childhood to the end of each of their lives. Sara Holdren, Vulture, 25 Jan. 2024 The photograph was taken in 1941, during the Lviv pogroms in Ukraine. Robin Abcarian, The Mercury News, 15 Feb. 2024 In the occupied West Bank, far-right settlers engage in regular pogroms, having received the blessing of members of Netanyahu’s cabinet and a typically hands-off approach (or worse) from Israeli Defense Forces. Kate Aronoff, The New Republic, 13 Oct. 2023 But because Jews in Russia did not have rights to be taken away from them, those pogroms didn’t fit the meaning of antisemitism. Isaac Chotiner, The New Yorker, 7 Nov. 2023

These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'pogrom.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

Word History

Etymology

Noun

Yiddish, from Russ, literally, devastation

First Known Use

Noun

1891, in the meaning defined above

Verb

1915, in the meaning defined above

Time Traveler
The first known use of pogrom was in 1891

Dictionary Entries Near pogrom

Cite this Entry

“Pogrom.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/pogrom. Accessed 29 Mar. 2024.

Last Updated: - Updated example sentences
Love words? Need even more definitions?

Subscribe to America's largest dictionary and get thousands more definitions and advanced search—ad free!