murder

Murder is the act of unlawful homicide. Since the law determines what homicide is lawful and what homicide is unlawful, and the laws of a nation can be either rightful or wrongful, the term 'murder' has no intrinsic ethical meaning, but only has a relative meaning.

Murder is usually (but not always) a power word and is used to describe an act of killing in the negative way, this compares to termination used as a euphemistic power word by the millitary (for example) that refers to the "desired" act of killing.

See also

• killing
• man slaughter
• death
• suicide