manslaughter

English

Etymology

From Middle English manslaȝter, manslauter, equivalent to man +‎ slaughter, or taken as an adaptation of Old English mansliht (“murder; killing of a person”), from mann (“person”) +‎ sliht (“killing”), see manslaught. Cognate with Scots manslauchter (“homicide”). Compare also Old Frisian monslaga (“murder”).

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈmænˌslɔːtə/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈmænˌslɔtɚ/

Noun

manslaughter (countable and uncountable, plural manslaughters)

1. (obsolete) The slaying of a human being.
   • 1930, Marmaduke Pickthall, transl., The Meaning of the Glorious Koran, surah 5, verse 32:

     For that cause We decreed for the Children of Israel that whosoever killeth a human being for other than manslaughter or corruption in the earth, it shall be as if he had killed all mankind, and whoso saveth the life of one, it shall be as if he had saved the life of all mankind.

2. (law) The unlawful killing of a human, either in negligence or incidentally to the commission of some unlawful act, but without specific malice, or upon a sudden excitement of anger; considered less culpable than murder, but more culpable than justifiable homicide.
   • 2026 August 6, Nicholas Muhoro, “An Ohio Teen Vanished During a One-Mile Drive in 1994. Her Locked Car Was Found Hours Later”, in Skip Boring‎^[1], archived from the original on 6 August 2026:

     In 2003, Christopher Below was in an interrogation room at the Evansville Police Department when he admitted to Detective Scott Thomas of the Evansville Police Department that he had shot Kathern Fetzer in his apartment and disposed of the body in a commercial trash bin. Her remains were never recovered, and Below pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter.

Derived terms

• constructive manslaughter
• corporate manslaughter
• criminally negligent manslaughter
• first-degree manslaughter
• involuntary manslaughter
• manslaughterous
• second-degree manslaughter
• voluntary manslaughter

Related terms

• self-slaughter

Translations

act of killing unlawfully

• Afrikaans: manslag
• Bulgarian: непредумишлено убийство n (nepredumišleno ubijstvo)
• Catalan: homicidi involuntari m
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 誤殺 / 误杀 (zh) (wùshā), 過失殺人 / 过失杀人 (zh) (guòshī shārén), 非預謀殺人罪 / 非预谋杀人罪 (fēi yùmóu shārén zuì)

• Cornish: denladh m
• Czech: zabití z nedbalosti, zabití (cs) n, neúmyslné zabití
• Danish: manddrab (da) n
• Dutch: doodslag (nl) m
• Faroese: manndráp n
• Finnish: kuolemantuottamus (fi); tappo (fi)
• French: homicide involontaire (fr) m, homicide involontaire coupable (Canada, law)
• Georgian: განუზრახველი მკვლელობა (ganuzraxveli mḳvleloba)
• German: Totschlag (de) m (intentional); [Verbrechen] mit Todesfolge m (intentional harm but unintentional killing); fahrlässige Tötung (de) m (negligent)
• Greek: ανθρωποκτονία (el) f (anthropoktonía)
• Hebrew: הריגה ברשלנות
• Hungarian: (out of negligence) gondatlanságból elkövetett emberölés, (not premeditated) előre meg nem fontolt szándékkal elkövetett emberölés, (out of passion/overexcitement) erős felindulásban elkövetett emberölés
• Icelandic: manndráp (is) n
• Irish: dúnorgain f
• Italian: omicidio colposo m
• Japanese: 故殺 (ja) (こさつ, kosatsu; voluntary); 過失致死 (ja) (かしつちし, kashitsuchishi; involuntary), 過失致死罪 (ja) (かしつちしざい, kashitsuchishizai),
• Korean: 고살(故殺) (gosal)
• Manx: dunverys neuvyskidagh m
• Māori: matenga pokerehū, whakamate ohonoa
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: uaktsomt drap n

• Polish: nieumyślne spowodowanie śmierci n
• Portuguese: homicídio culposo m
• Russian: непредумы́шленное уби́йство n (nepredumýšlennoje ubíjstvo)
• Scottish Gaelic: duine-mharbhadh m
• Serbo-Croatian: ubojstvo iz nehaja n
• Spanish: homicidio (es) m, homicidio involuntario m
• Swedish: dråp (sv) n (general), vållande till annans död n (Sweden Swedish), dödsvållande n (Finland Swedish)
• Telugu: నరహత్య (narahatya)
• Vietnamese: ngộ sát (vi)
• Welsh: dynladdiad m

Further reading

• manslaughter on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• “manslaughter”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.

Anagrams

• slaughterman