as in patricide
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Recent Examples of parricide
This is what's known as a parricide, where somebody kills their parents.
—
Lori A Bashian , Larry Fink, FOXNews.com, 5 Jan. 2026
The double killing of one's parents, known as parricide, is a rare event, according to Dr. Kathleen Heide, Ph.D., professor of criminology at the University of South Florida and author of Why Kids Kill Parents: Child Abuse and Adolescent Homicide.
—Gillian Telling, PEOPLE, 23 Dec. 2025
Pancakes and parricide, anyone?
—Joanna O'Leary, Chron, 24 Jan. 2021
The Willoughbys Rated PG for sugarcoated parricide.
—Natalia Winkelman, New York Times, 22 Apr. 2020
Everything seems to be pointing toward parricide, but the future is no simpler than the past.
—Adam Shatz, The New York Review of Books, 2 Jan. 2020
Macron’s ascent to the presidency began, like a certain Greek tragedy, with parricide.
—Arthur Goldhammer, Foreign Affairs, 12 Dec. 2018
But University of Florida criminologist Kathleen Heide, who specializes in parricide or children who kill their parents, has said that the majority of kids are driven to kill a parent by severe trauma at the hands of that parent.
—Mary Emily O'Hara, NBC News, 22 May 2017
To write in Baldwin’s wake means to displace the father-teacher in a Whitmanesque act of parricide—not to dutifully shoulder the same historical burdens, but to comprehend one’s own historical moment more clearly.
—Ismail Muhammad, Slate Magazine, 15 Feb. 2017
Lori A Bashian , Larry Fink, FOXNews.com, 5 Jan. 2026
The double killing of one's parents, known as parricide, is a rare event, according to Dr. Kathleen Heide, Ph.D., professor of criminology at the University of South Florida and author of Why Kids Kill Parents: Child Abuse and Adolescent Homicide.
—Gillian Telling, PEOPLE, 23 Dec. 2025
Pancakes and parricide, anyone?
—Joanna O'Leary, Chron, 24 Jan. 2021
The Willoughbys Rated PG for sugarcoated parricide.
—Natalia Winkelman, New York Times, 22 Apr. 2020
Everything seems to be pointing toward parricide, but the future is no simpler than the past.
—Adam Shatz, The New York Review of Books, 2 Jan. 2020
Macron’s ascent to the presidency began, like a certain Greek tragedy, with parricide.
—Arthur Goldhammer, Foreign Affairs, 12 Dec. 2018
But University of Florida criminologist Kathleen Heide, who specializes in parricide or children who kill their parents, has said that the majority of kids are driven to kill a parent by severe trauma at the hands of that parent.
—Mary Emily O'Hara, NBC News, 22 May 2017
To write in Baldwin’s wake means to displace the father-teacher in a Whitmanesque act of parricide—not to dutifully shoulder the same historical burdens, but to comprehend one’s own historical moment more clearly.
—Ismail Muhammad, Slate Magazine, 15 Feb. 2017
Recent Examples of Synonyms for parricide
Noun
-
The second season’s focus on the Menendez brothers’ patricide is loud, confrontational, and approaches the case from multiple perspectives at once, which can either come across as daring or incoherent.—
Joe Reid,
Vulture,
24 May 2025
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When Joe is implicated in financial misdeeds connected to land deals conducted on the tribe’s behalf, Mack seizes upon the news to banish Joe from the reservation, a symbolic patricide also intended to damage Gloria’s campaign.—
Christopher Sorrentino,
New York Times,
10 Apr. 2025
Noun
-
In the illuminated texts of the medieval and early Renaissance periods, artists decided to rachet up the horrors of Agrippina’s matricide.—
Diana Arterian
June 16,
Literary Hub,
16 June 2025
-
Several generate physical action that, besides wickedness, is driven by rage — fights, accidents, assaults, pederasty, filicide, matricide.—
Stuart Dybek,
New York Times,
10 Feb. 2025
Noun
-
The radical shifts in France — regicide, the Committee of Public Safety’s terror, and expansionist campaigns — dissolved the moral and practical basis for the alliance.—
Daniel Ross Goodman,
The Washington Examiner,
9 Jan. 2026
-
With examples drawn from Scripture and across the length of history, Paine commits rhetorical regicide.—
Matthew Redmond
August 13,
Literary Hub,
13 Aug. 2025
Noun
-
But Iran did little to stop the fratricide.—
Graeme Wood,
The Atlantic,
2 Sep. 2025
-
But what is absolutely clear to me right now is that this Israeli government is committing suicide, homicide and fratricide.—
Thomas L. Friedman,
Mercury News,
28 Aug. 2025
Noun
-
Several generate physical action that, besides wickedness, is driven by rage — fights, accidents, assaults, pederasty, filicide, matricide.—
Stuart Dybek,
New York Times,
10 Feb. 2025
-
One study of maternal filicide observed that, whereas psychotic mothers often acted suddenly, depressed mothers tended to contemplate killing their children for days or weeks before acting.—
Eren Orbey,
The New Yorker,
14 Oct. 2024
Noun
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As teens, both were prosecuted in adult court for murder.—
Kelly Davis,
San Diego Union-Tribune,
8 Feb. 2026
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William Brock, 83, was sentenced this week to 21 years to life for murder, felonious assault and kidnapping in Toland-Hall’s killing.—
Faith Karimi,
CNN Money,
8 Feb. 2026
Noun
-
Stepheny Price covers crime, including missing persons, homicides and migrant crime.—
Stepheny Price,
FOXNews.com,
11 Feb. 2026
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This is the second mass homicide in British Columbia in less than a year.—
Lex Harvey,
CNN Money,
11 Feb. 2026
Cite this Entry
“Parricide.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/parricide. Accessed 15 Feb. 2026.
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