1. The ceremonial eating of human flesh or parts of the human body for magical or religious purposes, as to acquire the power or skill of a person recently killed.
2. The eating of human flesh by another human being or the eating of the flesh of an animal by another animal of its own kind or the eating of flesh of living members of the same or similar species.
3. Etymology: from Spanish Canibalis, the name given by Christopher Columbus to the Caribs of Cuba and Haiti who allegedly ate human flesh.

The act of feeding on or eating the flesh of one's own kind: "Susan read in a book that in some parts around the world, there was a practice of cannibalism among certain primitive tribes, in which the people ate their prisoners."