要注意唷，這個字要小心使用。根據1948年聯合國大會通過第260A號決議《防止及懲治滅絕種族罪公約》定義，犯有以下行為者稱為種族滅絕：

蓄意全部或局部消滅某一國族、族群、種族或宗教團體，犯有下列行為之一者：

● 殺害該團體的成員。
● 致使該團體的成員在身體上或精神上遭受嚴重傷害。
● 故意使該團體處於某種生活狀況下，以毀滅其全部或局部的生命。
● 強制施行辦法，意圖防止該團體內成員生育。
● 強迫轉移該團體之兒童至另一團體。

近代被定調為種族滅絕的事件有猶太人大屠殺、盧安達大屠殺、雪布尼查大屠殺、日軍在中國戰爭罪行等。若一個國家或獨立個體被國際法庭判為種族滅絕加害者，將會受到嚴格審判，其後的政權也要付出相當大的賠償。所以國際間都非常謹慎使用這個字。

According to the “1948 UN General Assembly resolution 260 A, Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide,” genocide means any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group:

• Killing members of the group.
• Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group. 
• Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part.
• Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group.
• Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group.

The incidents that have been defined as genocides in modern times include the Holocaust, the Rwandan genocide, the Srebrenica massacre, and Japanese war crimes committed in China. When a state or an individual is ruled by the International Court of Justice as a genocide perpetrator, they will be subject to a rigorous trial and the subject regime will be required to pay an enormous amount in reparations. Therefore, international parties are very cautious about using this word.