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
Relevance
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
Why won’t the State Police or the governor’s office come out and condemn this level of brutality?
—
Boston Herald Editorial Staff,
Boston Herald,
30 June 2026
But it’s lost on these boys, whose youth has been ground away by the drug trade’s meaningless brutality.
—
Ew Staff,
Entertainment Weekly,
25 June 2026
There is a weird intimacy to hand-to-hand combat and the brutality of it.
—
Rachel Raposas,
PEOPLE,
24 June 2026
The latter is a democratic socialist who hasn't held public office before and works at a public defender's office providing legal aid to victims of police brutality.
—
ABC News,
23 June 2026
See All Example Sentences for brutality
Boston Herald Editorial Staff,
Boston Herald,
30 June 2026
But it’s lost on these boys, whose youth has been ground away by the drug trade’s meaningless brutality.
—
Ew Staff,
Entertainment Weekly,
25 June 2026
There is a weird intimacy to hand-to-hand combat and the brutality of it.
—
Rachel Raposas,
PEOPLE,
24 June 2026
The latter is a democratic socialist who hasn't held public office before and works at a public defender's office providing legal aid to victims of police brutality.
—
ABC News,
23 June 2026
See All Example Sentences for brutality
Recent Examples of Synonyms for brutality
Noun
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According to the Sheriff’s Office, a judge released Cruz on his own recognizance June 4 following his arraignment on felony animal cruelty charges in Sacramento Superior Court.
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At one point, the narrator, embarrassed by his own act of cruelty, gives a sobbing woman all his money and then leaves her alone in a hotel room.
Noun
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Generations of agents, therefore, have had to walk a line between bookishness and brutishness.
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But the brutishness has merely relocated, to places far more dangerous.
Noun
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The respected 13th-century Spanish rabbi Nachmanides (Ramban) chastises Lot for the atrocity of offering his daughters in place of the angels.
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While younger generations were taught in school about the atrocities of the Holocaust, the book found that family lore continued to sanitize the past with grandparents often painted as heroes, rescuers or victims themselves.
Noun
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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.
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All of a sudden, that animalism has been incarnated.
Cite this Entry
“Brutality.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/brutality. Accessed 5 Jul. 2026.
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