internecine.

1. Involving destructive conflict among members of the same group or community.

2. Causing mutual destruction or slaughter between opposing sides.

Use it for

Words that belong together

• internecine rivalry
• internecine struggle

On the page

Internecine rivalry weakened the expedition before it left the port.

The family concealed its internecine struggle behind a perfect dinner service.

Usage notes

Primary category: literary. Forms: Comparative more internecine; superlative most internecine where gradation is meaningful. Legacy lexical fields mirror sense 1 only. Use numbered sense fields for all meanings.