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Glite Dictionary
beheading

beheading

25 8.6
Killing someone by cutting off their head
  • noun
  • /bɪˈhɛdɪŋ/
  • Offensive
translation icon : decapitación
  • Robin Lakoff's contribution discusses the effects of beheading in English and Latin.
  • kidnapping and beheading
  • beheadings and bombings
  • beheading or suicide

It's like and it's just like come with me to the beheading with Revolve.

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Examples

  • Both are suspected in the kidnapping and beheading of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl.

    Academic text (2007)

  • There was a post on a dark website about mass beheadings in residential areas.

    Vice (2018)

  • There, he had seen the public beheading of the Mennonite Hans Landis in 1614.

    Academic text (2010)

  • The November 2005 beheadings of three Hindu schoolgirls were meant to undermine confidence in the state.

    Academic text (2009)

  • Although the guillotine is not used today, six countries permit beheading, and one country uses electrocution, gassing, and lethal injection.

    Academic text (2006)

  • The news reported on the gruesome beheading of a political dissident by extremist groups.

  • During the trial, they presented evidence linking the defendant to the beheading of several hostages.

  • The documentary detailed the historical significance of beheading as a method of execution in various cultures.

Synonyms

execution
vsbeheading
361 6.5

Putting a person to death as punishment for a crime

is the specific method of causing that death by removing the head
slaying
vsbeheading
  • NSFW
30 7.4

An illegal killing of a person planned in advance

is a lawful punishment that causes death by removing the head
decapitation
vsbeheading
  • Offensive
20 8.6

The act of cutting off the head of a person or animal, usually to kill them

is limited to people rather than animals
putting to death
vsbeheading
  • NSFW
1 8.4

Killing a living thing, for example as punishment or to end suffering

is a specific legal killing by removing the head
decollation
vsbeheading
  • NSFW
9.9

Cutting off a person's head as a punishment

is about killing someone by that head removal

How Violent

dismemberment
  • Offensive
14 8.7
beheading
  • Offensive
25 8.6
execution
361 6.5
to murder
  • NSFW
∞ 3.0
killing
  • NSFW
690 4.1

Surface Forms

beheading singular
beheadings plural

Morphology

beheading = behead (transparent) = be + head + ing

Forming a gerund/nominalization from the verb 'behead' by adding '-ing' is a regular and predictable process.

Etymology

Beheading comes from the prefix be- plus head, so it originally meant 'to take off the head'. That's why beheading means the act of killing someone by cutting off their head.