1
as in cruelty
disposition to willfully inflict pain and suffering on others
the police were accused of brutality for using excessive force in making arrests
Synonyms & Similar Words
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Antonyms & Near Antonyms
2
as in brutishness
the manifestation of the traits or the gratification of the appetites of a lower animal
the disconcerting ease with which the people adopted the brutality of the enemy invaders
Synonyms & Similar Words
Antonyms & Near Antonyms
Example Sentences
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Recent Examples of brutality
This includes re-enshrining, codifying and strengthening our inalienable rights in the United States and abolishing ICE to ensure immigration and the struggle of migrants is treated as a civilian one, requiring support instead of brutality and criminalization.
—
Lucas Robinson, San Diego Union-Tribune, 7 May 2026
Although their relationship begins as a love story, the book brings home the profits of Jacob’s earlier brutality—fate catches up to him, and everything that is love and passion sort of spoils into wrath and obsession.
—The New Yorker, New Yorker, 6 May 2026
Giuliani’s time in office was marked by a crackdown on crime, but race relations eroded as Giuliani defended the police against accusations of bias and brutality.
—Los Angeles Times, 4 May 2026
Based on Otessa Moshfegh’s novel about women driven to extremes by life in a small town, Thomasin McKenzie stars as the titular gruff clerk at a boys prison, physically and mentally stuck in a reality inextricable from male brutality.
—Chris Feil, Vulture, 1 May 2026
See All Example Sentences for brutality
Lucas Robinson, San Diego Union-Tribune, 7 May 2026
Although their relationship begins as a love story, the book brings home the profits of Jacob’s earlier brutality—fate catches up to him, and everything that is love and passion sort of spoils into wrath and obsession.
—The New Yorker, New Yorker, 6 May 2026
Giuliani’s time in office was marked by a crackdown on crime, but race relations eroded as Giuliani defended the police against accusations of bias and brutality.
—Los Angeles Times, 4 May 2026
Based on Otessa Moshfegh’s novel about women driven to extremes by life in a small town, Thomasin McKenzie stars as the titular gruff clerk at a boys prison, physically and mentally stuck in a reality inextricable from male brutality.
—Chris Feil, Vulture, 1 May 2026
See All Example Sentences for brutality
Recent Examples of Synonyms for brutality
Noun
-
That’s one of the great cruelties of the world.—
Literary Hub,
Literary Hub,
18 May 2026
-
The movie, set in Spain in 1944, is both an intoxicating work of fantasy and a grim parable of political rebellion, and its insights into the cruelties and vulnerabilities of fascist power remain undimmed.—
Justin Chang,
New Yorker,
18 May 2026
Noun
-
Generations of agents, therefore, have had to walk a line between bookishness and brutishness.—
Dan Piepenbring,
Harpers Magazine,
24 Mar. 2026
-
But the brutishness has merely relocated, to places far more dangerous.—
Ian Buruma,
New Yorker,
23 Feb. 2026
Noun
-
Various armed groups have long vied for control of the area, and have been accused of engaging in a campaign of atrocities against the Nuba and other communities there.—
Annie Hylton,
New Yorker,
14 May 2026
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Their willingness to film their inhumanity echoed the Nazis of the Third Reich, who likewise filmed their mass atrocities.—
Bobby Zirkin,
Baltimore Sun,
14 May 2026
Noun
-
Hope is something that Dior’s creative director Maria Grazia Chiuri can related to, having explored the dualities of hope and despair (as well as lightness and darkness, and fluidity and animalism) in her spring 2023 collection.—
Rosemary Feitelberg,
WWD,
22 Jan. 2025
-
All of a sudden, that animalism has been incarnated.—
Hunter Ingram,
Variety,
25 Mar. 2024
Noun
-
In other words, humans can act against the animal component of their nature and manifest their humanity by rejecting their animality.—
Literary Hub,
Literary Hub,
11 Nov. 2025
-
This strangeness causes all sorts of internal agitation, an uneasiness about humanity’s closeness to animality.—
Nicholas Quah,
Vulture,
16 Feb. 2025
Cite this Entry
“Brutality.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/brutality. Accessed 20 May. 2026.
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