 It also states that the term is used "in the names of certain massacres of history".The first recorded use in English of the word "massacre" in the name of an event is due to Christopher Marlow who in c. 1600 referred to what is now known as the St. Bartholomew's Day massacre as "The massacre at Paris"

The purpose of the list is to trace such of the term "massacre" specifically.There are many alternative terms with similar connotations, such as butchery, carnage, bloodbath, mass killing, atrocity, etc.