What does serial killer mean?

Definitions for serial killer
se·ri·al killer

This dictionary definitions page includes all the possible meanings, example usage and translations of the word serial killer.

Princeton's WordNet

  1. serial killer, serial murderernoun

    someone who murders more than three victims one at a time in a relatively short interval

Wiktionary

  1. serial killernoun

    A person who commits multiple (more than two) murders, especially similar ones with no obvious motive over a period of time with a "cooling-off" period between each murder.

Wikipedia

  1. Serial killer

    A serial killer is typically a person who murders three or more persons, with the murders taking place over more than a month and including a significant period of time between them. While most authorities set a threshold of three murders, others extend it to four or lessen it to two.Psychological gratification is the usual motive for serial killing, and many serial murders involve sexual contact with the victim. The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) states that the motives of serial killers can include anger, thrill-seeking, financial gain, and attention seeking, and killings may be executed as such. The victims may have something in common; for example, demographic profile, appearance, gender or race. Often the FBI will focus on a particular pattern serial killers follow. Based on this pattern, this will give key clues into finding the killer along with their motives.Although a serial killer is a distinct classification that differs from that of a mass murderer, spree killer, or contract killer, there exist conceptual overlaps between them. Some debate exists on the specific criteria for each category, especially with regard to the distinction between spree killers and serial killers.

ChatGPT

  1. serial killer

    A serial killer is typically defined as a person who commits murder on three or more occasions, with a 'cooling off' period in between, which can range from weeks to years. These individuals often exhibit a pattern or signature method in their killings, motivated by abnormal psychological gratification. The motives behind their crimes can vary, including anger, thrill-seeking, financial gain, and attention seeking. Their crimes usually have a degree of premeditation and are not committed in the heat of the moment.

Wikidata

  1. Serial killer

    A serial killer is traditionally defined as a person who has killed three or more people over a period of more than a month, with down time between the murders, and whose motivation for killing is usually based on psychological gratification. Some sources, such as the FBI, disregard the "three or more" criteria and define the term as "a series of two or more murders, committed as separate events, usually, but not always, by one offender acting alone" or, including the vital characteristics, a minimum of two murders. Often, a sexual element is involved in the killings, but the FBI states that motives for serial murder include "anger, thrill, financial gain, and attention seeking". The murders may have been attempted or completed in a similar fashion and the victims may have had something in common; for example, occupation, race, appearance, sex, or age group. Serial killers are not the same as mass murderers, nor are they spree killers, who commit murders in two or more locations with virtually no break in between; however, cases of extended bouts of sequential killings over periods of weeks or months with no apparent "cooling off" period or "return to normalcy" have caused some serial killer experts to suggest a hybrid category of "spree-serial killer".

Suggested Resources

  1. serial killer

    Read the full text of the Serial Killer poem by Nikhil Parekh on the Poetry.com website.

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Numerology

  1. Chaldean Numerology

    The numerical value of serial killer in Chaldean Numerology is: 4

  2. Pythagorean Numerology

    The numerical value of serial killer in Pythagorean Numerology is: 5

Examples of serial killer in a Sentence

  1. Nicolas Martin, www.iatrogenic.org:

    The headline reads, "Docs say patients make them prescribe useless antibiotics." This puts a physician in roughly the same predicament as a serial killer. The latter says, "Stop me before I kill again, while the former says, "Stop me before I prescribe again."

  2. Nicolas Martin, www.iatrogenic.org:

    The headline reads, Docs say patients make them prescribe useless antibiotics. This puts a physician in roughly the same predicament as a serial killer. The latter says, Stop me before I kill again, while the former says, Stop me before I prescribe again.

  3. Thomas Hargrove:

    When you put the narratives together ... it just screams serial killer.

  4. Sasha Reid:

    At a certain point, you know that there is a serial killer operating, studying serial homicide for over 10 years now, you learn not to ignore patterns.

  5. Detroit Police Chief James Craig:

    I appreciate our friends in the media for really dispelling a horrible rumor that was circulating across the city that there was a serial killer and that he had dumped five bodies in dumpsters across the city, that was absolutely false, you knew it was false and we only ask that if you didn't hear it from the Detroit Police Department, it's probably not so.


Translations for serial killer

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"serial killer." Definitions.net. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 23 Apr. 2024. <https://www.definitions.net/definition/serial+killer>.

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