I'm not claiming to give a formal definition of terrorism, I'm just saying that if such a definition exists it should definitely include the Paris attacks, othe

I'm not claiming to give a formal definition of terrorism, I'm just saying that if such a definition exists it should definitely include the Paris attacks, otherwise it would be meaningless. Regardless of that, the events that you mentioned are massive, coordinated, state-level actions. I just can't accept labeling those as terrorism without that word losing any meaning. Yes, those events are horrible, but not every horrible thing that involves killing civilians is terrorism even when if's brutal mass murder. There are other words too, like genocide, war crimes, massacre, assassinations, etc.