Good question! "Slay", means to kill in a violent way. "Murder", isn't necessarily violent, you could do it from a long distance away (I imagine...). "Kill", I suppose is the word with less emotion attached to it. It means to end the life of someone or something, but I think you can "kill the lights" (turn them off) or "kill time" (waste time/make it pass as fast as possible) because the word "kill" doesn't have quite as much feeling to it as the other two words. Slay a dragon. Murder the man who slept with your wife. Kill the chicken so we can have dinner. I hope this helps!

Functionally, there isn't much difference, but contextually they have some distinctions (I'll include 'assassinate' here since it seems pertinent): Kill - taking a life, irrespective of circumstances (this is basically the catch all term) Murder - taking a life, with absolute intent and desire to take said life (usually of a fellow human/same species creature in fiction etc., though killing an animal with no justification can be seen as murder as well) Slay - not used commonly in day to day conversation and more for the realm of fiction and propaganda in history or similar, but usually used in the context of killing something or someone well known/highly esteemed/considered beyond the 'slayer's' ability to kill or monsters/similar (e.g. giant-slayer, monster-slayer, king-slayer, champion-slayer etc. etc.) Assassinate - aligns with murder, but typically of a public figure/famous individual, usually completely pre-meditated, payment sometimes (if uncommonly) optional

To kill is to stop or end life. "kill the Engine" In English means stop the Engine. machinery in the U.K is equipped with kill switches to stop Machinery in Emergencies When you fall off a motorbike in England you will be trained to hit the Killswitch to stop the Engine, or another person may find the kill switch and KILL(stop) the Engine. to kill a person means to end their life it could be accidental or deliberate. soldiers kill people (other soldiers). For a soldier to kill a civilian is MURDER Murder is a legal term and it means to deliberately end a person's life (kill). Or if you kill someone deliberately then that is Murder and you are legally guilty of Murder. To slay means to kill in a violent way and the term is often used in warfare or other atrocities and often by the media "a drive-by shooting took place on italki at 7 pm last Friday when 16 English students were slain, by a student who failed his English Exams"