as in harshly
in a manner so as to cause loss or suffering
the prisoners were treated brutally at the hands of the guards
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Recent Examples of brutally
Ripa had a brutally honest response locked and loaded.
—
Kimi Robinson, USA Today, 2 Apr. 2026
And for those who gave their lives, Renee Good, mother of three, brutally murdered, and Alex Pretti, VA nurse, executed by ICE and left to die in the street without even the decency of our lawless government investigating their deaths.
—James Hibberd, HollywoodReporter, 1 Apr. 2026
Bob Dylan wrote that song during a dark time in American history, when civil rights marchers were being brutally beaten in the streets, and the Civil Rights Act of 1964 seemed unlikely to survive unified Southern opposition in the House of Representatives.
—Andy Greene, Rolling Stone, 1 Apr. 2026
DNA tests conducted last week by a private lab on semen and hair samples taken from the underwear of an 11-year-old girl brutally murdered in 1987 showed inconclusive results.
—Martin E. Comas, The Orlando Sentinel, 31 Mar. 2026
Iran, where major protests in January were brutally repressed, has between 50% and 60% under 30.
—John Rennie Short, The Conversation, 31 Mar. 2026
After the game, Verlander gave a brutally honest assessment of his performance.
—MSNBC Newsweek, 31 Mar. 2026
Vessel’s starkly sharp architecture — critics call it cold or even brutally modernistic — has drawn pushback in several affluent suburbs, but its supporters say opposition is often based on a reluctance to bring lower- to moderate-income people into upscale neighborhoods.
—Don Stacom, Hartford Courant, 30 Mar. 2026
And sources of public funding can be brutally regressive, derived from taxes on items like lottery tickets, which are bought disproportionately by the poor.
—Louisa Thomas, New Yorker, 29 Mar. 2026
Kimi Robinson, USA Today, 2 Apr. 2026
And for those who gave their lives, Renee Good, mother of three, brutally murdered, and Alex Pretti, VA nurse, executed by ICE and left to die in the street without even the decency of our lawless government investigating their deaths.
—James Hibberd, HollywoodReporter, 1 Apr. 2026
Bob Dylan wrote that song during a dark time in American history, when civil rights marchers were being brutally beaten in the streets, and the Civil Rights Act of 1964 seemed unlikely to survive unified Southern opposition in the House of Representatives.
—Andy Greene, Rolling Stone, 1 Apr. 2026
DNA tests conducted last week by a private lab on semen and hair samples taken from the underwear of an 11-year-old girl brutally murdered in 1987 showed inconclusive results.
—Martin E. Comas, The Orlando Sentinel, 31 Mar. 2026
Iran, where major protests in January were brutally repressed, has between 50% and 60% under 30.
—John Rennie Short, The Conversation, 31 Mar. 2026
After the game, Verlander gave a brutally honest assessment of his performance.
—MSNBC Newsweek, 31 Mar. 2026
Vessel’s starkly sharp architecture — critics call it cold or even brutally modernistic — has drawn pushback in several affluent suburbs, but its supporters say opposition is often based on a reluctance to bring lower- to moderate-income people into upscale neighborhoods.
—Don Stacom, Hartford Courant, 30 Mar. 2026
And sources of public funding can be brutally regressive, derived from taxes on items like lottery tickets, which are bought disproportionately by the poor.
—Louisa Thomas, New Yorker, 29 Mar. 2026
Recent Examples of Synonyms for brutally
Adverb
-
Patrick Soon-Shiong, a controversial figure in the biotech industry, was harshly criticized by the Food and Drug Administration for making several false and misleading claims about a cancer treatment in television ads and a podcast.—
Ed Silverman,
STAT,
24 Mar. 2026
-
Markets interpreted the message quickly and harshly.—
Benzinga,
Freep.com,
21 Mar. 2026
Adverb
-
In the midst of the conversion, a board member named Holden Karnofsky objected to it, arguing that the nonprofit was being severely undervalued.—
Ronan Farrow,
New Yorker,
6 Apr. 2026
-
Tehran now relies heavily on its Shahed drones, with its missile production and launch capacity severely diminished.—
Los Angeles Times,
Los Angeles Times,
5 Apr. 2026
Adverb
-
The first of the four chapters is an oppressively gray-toned, narratively diffuse spy thriller, set amid the mists of what appears to be the Second World War.—
Justin Chang,
New Yorker,
18 Dec. 2025
-
The second planet from the sun has a completely inhospitable surface, with temperatures reaching 863 degrees Fahrenheit (462 degrees Celsius) and a crushing pressure underneath an oppressively thick atmosphere.—
Keith Cooper,
Space.com,
1 Oct. 2025
Adverb
-
Third baseman Matt Chapman charged hard and fielded the ball, but the ball popped out of his glove on the exchange.—
Justice delos Santos,
Mercury News,
5 Apr. 2026
-
No baseball community dies harder, without reward, than the Rockies faithful, spring after spring.—
Sean Keeler,
Denver Post,
4 Apr. 2026
Cite this Entry
“Brutally.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/brutally. Accessed 6 Apr. 2026.
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