ethnic cleansing
nounDefinition of ethnic cleansing
: the expulsion, imprisonment, or killing of an ethnic minority by a dominant majority in order to achieve ethnic homogeneity
Examples of ethnic cleansing in a Sentence
Recent Examples on the Web
In 1999, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization launched a bombing campaign against Serbia to stop what Western countries called ethnic cleansing against Kosovo’s mostly Muslim Albanians. — Drew Hinshaw, WSJ, "U.S., Germany at Odds Over Serbia-Kosovo Land Swap," 31 Aug. 2018 The report calls out Myanmar's security forces and local militias for committing ethnic cleansing against the Rohingya minority population in 2017. — Nicole Gaouette And Laura Koran, CNN, "US rights report lashes Russia but neglects women's issues," 20 Apr. 2018 Dehumanization of this type also plagues Myanmar, where the military has undertaken large-scale ethnic cleansing of the majority-Muslim Rohingya people. — K.n.c., The Economist, "Societies are tearing apart, but they can be brought together," 14 Aug. 2019 During the late 1960s, when a second wave of the Native American renaissance flourished, Harjo and other Native writers and artists found community in awakening more fully into their identities as indigenous survivors of ethnic cleansing. — Élan Young, Smithsonian, "Joy Harjo’s New Poetry Collection Brings Native Issues to the Forefront," 13 Aug. 2019 Attempt is to change demography of Kashmir through ethnic cleansing. — NBC News, "India cracks down on Kashmir ahead of Muslim Eid festival," 11 Aug. 2019 The Navajo Nation exists because of an 1868 treaty that came after years of ethnic cleansing attempts by the US government. — Rebecca Jennings, Vox, "Everyone wants to Instagram the world’s most beautiful canyon. Should they?," 11 July 2019 Rakhine State, a ribbon of marsh and mountain on the western coast of Myanmar, is isolated in the best of times, racked by guerrilla warfare and ethnic cleansing that takes place far from international scrutiny. — Hannah Beech, New York Times, "The Government Cut Their Internet. Will Abuses Now Remain Hidden?," 2 July 2019 He was marooned in the United States when war and ethnic cleansing engulfed the Balkan region, began publishing in English to considerable literary acclaim, and is now teaching creative writing at Princeton University. — Julia M. Klein, chicagotribune.com, "Aleksandar Hemon returns with a memoir, divided," 12 June 2019These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'ethnic cleansing.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
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