holo-, hol-

1. A great or complete devastation or destruction, especially by fire.
2. A sacrifice completely consumed by fire; burnt offering.
3. The systematic mass slaughter of European Jews who were placed in Nazi concentration camps during World War II (usually preceded by "the" and capitalized; such as, The Holocaust).
4. Any mass slaughter or reckless destruction of life.

Totality of destruction has been central to the meaning of holocaust since it first appeared in Middle English in the 14th century, used in reference to the biblical sacrifice in which a male animal was wholly burnt on the altar in worship of God.

Holocaust comes from Greek holokauston “that which is completely burnt”, which was a translation of a Hebrew word (literally “that which goes up”, that is, in smoke). In this sense of “burnt sacrifice”, holocaust is still used in some versions of the Bible.

In the 17th century the meaning of holocaust broadened to “something totally consumed by fire”, and the word eventually was applied to fires of extreme destructiveness. In the 20th century holocaust has taken on a variety of figurative meanings, summarizing the effects of war, rioting, storms, epidemic diseases, and even economic failures.

Most of these usages came into existence after World War II, but it is unclear whether they resulted from the use of holocaust in reference to the mass murder of European Jews and others by the Nazis. This application of the word occurred as early as 1942, but the phrase the Holocaust did not become established until the late 1950s.

Wholly hidden or secret; specifically of a cipher incapable of being read except by those who have a key.

1. A three-dimensional image produced by wavefront reconstruction and recorded on a photographic plate.
2. A pattern produced when light (or other radiation) reflected, diffracted, or transmitted by an object placed in a coherent beam is allowed to interfere with an undiffracted background or reference beam related in phase to the first (or identical with it); a photographic plate or film containing such a pattern.

A document entirely handwritten by its author; especially, a manuscript, a letter, or an unwitnessed will.

A reference to a document written wholly in the handwriting of the person whose signature it bears.

1. A letter or other document written wholly by the person in whose name it appears; completely in the author’s handwriting.
2. A method of recording and showing a three-dimensional image of an object using a photographic plate and light from a laser.

Related to characteristics manifest only in females.