Lebensraum

Lebensraum is a German term meaning "living space," borrowed into English primarily as a reference to Nazi ideology.

It named the doctrine that Germany required territorial expansion eastward—into Poland, the Soviet Union, and beyond—to secure land for ethnic Germans.

The concept provided ideological cover for invasion, displacement, and extermination.

In contemporary use, Lebensraum almost always carries this historical weight, invoking aggressive expansionism with genocidal undertones: Putin's rhetoric echoed the old Lebensraum justifications. (Lowercase lebensraum is the same word in less formal contexts.)