1
as in cruelty
disposition to willfully inflict pain and suffering on others
the barbaric wantonness with which the guards treated the prisoners of war
Synonyms & Similar Words
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Antonyms & Near Antonyms
2
as in grossness
the quality or state of being obscene
novels characterized chiefly by their sheer wantonness
Synonyms & Similar Words
Antonyms & Near Antonyms
Example Sentences
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Recent Examples of Synonyms for wantonness
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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All your Dad has to do is fill it and drink—the microfilter membrane will do the rest by removing chlorine odors, dirt, bacteria, and any other grossness floating around in there.
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There are no great surprises from here on out, though the sheer, lusty grossness of the fallout is occasionally startling.
Noun
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Lee learned much about the systemic oppression that Black Americans faced from his first student, Jesse Glover, who had been a victim of police brutality.
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These early precedents in fictional brutality also weaken Thomson’s next point, about literature’s superiority.
Noun
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The once-vaunted values of public life are now reduced to the lower standards of private life—venality, vulgarity, rudeness, incontinence, and ignorance.
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Benoit delights in language as much as her heroine, weaving Regency-era slang throughout and appending a chapter-by-chapter glossary of vulgarities.
Noun
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The bucket quickly went viral for its not-safe-for-work suggestiveness.
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The other funnymen of the time—Milton Berle with his lewd suggestiveness, Jackie Gleason with his baleful roar—did the same shtick over and over.
Noun
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Marie is disciplined and principled, while her rebellious daughter prides herself on breaking the rules and reveling in lasciviousness.
Noun
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This is a distinct category from the Mile-High Clubbers, whose lewdness is much more inappropriate.
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Claud has two convictions for indecent assault and battery on a child under 14 years of age and one conviction for open and gross lewdness and lascivious behavior.
Noun
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But many seemingly urbane texts also benefited from the intellectual and moral coarseness of their times.
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The term plant texture refers to the fineness or coarseness, roughness or smoothness, heaviness or lightness of a particular plant.
Cite this Entry
“Wantonness.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/wantonness. Accessed 6 Jul. 2026.
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