Why are there so many verbs that mean "to kill"?

This is not unique to English.

It's the same reason why we have so many terms for "toilet" or "penis". Talking directly about such things can be considered rude, and/or embarrassing, so people use a euphemism instead. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U6cake3bwnY https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Euphemism

P.S. One of my favourites, from the world of British politics, is the phrase "tired and emotional" to mean drunk. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tired_and_emotional

It's called euphemism. Killing is a heavy concept, possibly the heaviest. It's natural people would find creative ways to reference it without having to say it directly.

Every language has synonyms for everything

Well, mostly because saying the words "to kill someone" cannot be taken out of context. It's a single meaning. There's no other way to interpret that phrase. To "whack" somebody has other meanings, thus has plausible deniability. That's the whole point. Plausible deniability.

Criminal words in general have a lot of slang versions because they can't exactly discuss their plans openly, so career criminals come up with code words to disguise their true intent.

People, generally speaking, don't sit around saying "kill him", even if they're in the business of killing people. Criminal slang ("Drop", "take care of") is usually so that if someone overheard it, it doesn't sound as obvious. Technical euphemisms ("Target is down", say, or "friendly fire" for accidentally killing someone on your own side) are so that people outside the fraternity don't automatically object to it- it's not much of a cushion, but it's a cushion. Note that not all of them are euphemisms (terms meant to soften the meaning of a topic), a bunch of them are the opposite, dysphemisms ("Whack", "Cap his ass", "blow him away", etc are meant to- somehow- make it even *less* pleasant, usually to sound tough or frightening). Here: [https://www.reddit.com/r/LearnJapanese/comments/1hyimt/different\_ways\_to\_say\_to\_die/](https://www.reddit.com/r/LearnJapanese/comments/1hyimt/different_ways_to_say_to_die/) [https://carlgene.com/blog/2014/06/a-comprehensive-guide-to-euphemisms-in-chinese-and-english/](https://carlgene.com/blog/2014/06/a-comprehensive-guide-to-euphemisms-in-chinese-and-english/)

Saying "I'm going to kill him" is a legal admission. Speaking in euphemisms prevents self incrimination via evesdroppers or electronic surveillance. "I'm going to take him out" could be argued to be planning a dinner date.

So many things to kill and so many ways to do it.

These phrases are used often by criminals to refer to criminal acts. ‘I’m going to take out our New Jersey friend’ works better on the phone than ‘I plan to murder x, using a gun, at Vesuvio’s’. 

Euphemism

You've got enough good answers about euphemisms, but just FYI, "cap"/"bust a cap" means to shoot, not necessarily to kill (though obviously that often happens as a result).

Because when there are topics we don't like talking about directly, we invent euphemisms. Death and killing are a major category for this.

It's an important topic in the world so we have lots of words for it.

also how much it gets talked about in english-language music and television, which of course has so many different regional differences

There are also many verbs meaning "to die."

I think people just don’t like saying “kill” all the time, either because they don’t like saying “kill this person” or don’t like to think of other people as “killed”

Basically, all of these are examples of euphemisms, or, the process of people coming up with phrases that ultimately mean something more morally gray than it first seems. It also kinda softens the blow or allows for emotional disconnect from said act. Example: "Eliminate" can also just mean to generally ensure somebody is no longer in a position to do something. You can "eliminate" somebody from a game by sufficiently beating them in the match at hand, or you can "eliminate" somebody by... well...

Your native language doesn't? In Chinese, there's a few ways to say killing someone: 他見不到明天的太陽 處理掉他 讓他消失

No clue. i guess we’re just violent people. Or maybe just very descriptive, who knows? I personally always wondered why there are so many synonyms to backside.

That’s a good question😂

These are euphemisms.

And no one's even mentioned all the -cides: homicide, to kill a man/human, matri- for mother, patri- father, fratri- brother, regi- king, sui- self, herbi- plant, insecti- insects, nepo- nephew, geno- race, and others that aren't coming to mind right now. Ok, they're nouns not verbs, but there's quite a collection of them.