holocaust
n
1 great destruction or loss of life or the source of such destruction, esp. fire
2 usually cap the. Also called: Churban, Shoah. the mass murder by the Nazis of the Jews of continental Europe between 1940 and 1945
3 a rare word for →
burnt offering
(C13: from Late Latin holocaustum whole burnt offering, from Greek holokauston, from holo- + kaustos, from kaiein to burn)
♦
holocaustal, holocaustic adj