exterminate | extermination

The term ‘exterminate’ is quite routine with regards to removing all trace of an insect or animal regarded as a pest from somewhere. Often people will hire professionals to do so. The word takes on a much darker and more disturbing meaning when it is applied to humans. In that sense, it refers to mass genocide.

1. We had to hire a pest control service to exterminate the cockroaches in our office building.

2. The more recent settlers in that region attempted to carry out the extermination of the indigenous people.

3. Millions of Jewish people were exterminated by the Nazis during World War Two.