Great destruction of life (as in a battle); slaughter.
Example:
People from around the world made appeals to parties on all sides of the conflict to stop the carnage of the war in Bosnia.
Carnage does not refer only to slaughter on the battlefield. As long as tens of thousands of people die each year in automobile accidents, it is appropriate to speak of carnage on the nation's highways. And in some contexts carnage can simply mean violence or its results. Those concerned about the effect of all of the violence we are exposed to each day point in particular to the carnage on television and in the movies.