Kill

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This article is about the act of taking life. For other meanings, see Kill (disambiguation) or Killing (disambiguation)

To kill means to extinguish the life and hence cause the death of a living organism.

[edit] Synonyms

The words kill, murder, execution and assassination all signify acts which deprive of life.

The concept of killing is the most general of the four, with no implication of the manner, justification, or purpose of killing, or nature of what is killed, whether human being, animal, plant, or other object considered to posess the quality of life.
To murder is to kill either immorally, unjustly and without proper reason, or with premeditated intent.
To execute is to kill a person marked for death by the state, in a manner sanctioned by that state, whether by law or decree.
To assassinate is to kill a person marked for death, with the intent of furthering ideological or political goals.