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sanguinary

adjective/ˈsæŋɡwɪnəri/

C2CEFR level
88/100Rarity: very rare
LiteraryRegister

Involving or eager for much bloodshed and slaughter.

The sanguinary battle left both armies so depleted that neither could claim a real victory.

Similar: bloody, gory, bloodthirsty

Origin: From Latin sanguinarius, from sanguis 'blood'.

Topic: bloodshed in General English

Rarity runs from 0 (a word everyone knows) to 100 (almost never seen outside specialist or literary writing). Level is the word's real difficulty on the CEFR scale, from A1 to C2.

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