Synonyms of truculence

truculence

noun

ˈtrə-kyə-lən(t)s 

1

as in aggression

an inclination to fight or quarrel

a congenital truculence that resulted in his spending a significant amount of time in the principal's office

Synonyms & Similar Words

• aggression
• aggressiveness
• hostility
• defiance
• pugnacity
• belligerence
• bellicosity
• combativeness
• militance
• feistiness
• militancy
• assaultiveness
• contentiousness
• belligerency
• fight
• scrappiness
• quarrelsomeness
• disputatiousness
• antagonism
• irritability
• unfriendliness
• fierceness
• militantness
• chip on one's shoulder
• imperialism
• jingoism
• militarism
• petulance
• irascibility
• irritableness
• surliness
• peevishness
• rudeness
• fractiousness
• testiness
• orneriness
• disagreeableness
• querulousness
• crossness
• hyperaggressiveness
• crankiness
• fretfulness
• grumpiness
• grouchiness
• biliousness
• huffiness
• acidity
• captiousness
• waspishness
• pettishness
• irascibleness

Antonyms & Near Antonyms

• pacifism
• nonaggression
• friendliness
• benevolence
• sociability
• gentleness
• cordiality
• geniality
• affability
• amiability
• graciousness
• antimilitarism
• pleasantness
• mildness
• kindliness
• anti-imperialism
• complaisance
• antiaggression
• amicability
• amenability
• placability

2

as in cruelty

disposition to willfully inflict pain and suffering on others

the sergeant's truculence was revealed when she made the recruits run even further in the heat

Synonyms & Similar Words

• cruelty
• brutality
• savagery
• atrocity
• savageness
• barbarity
• heartlessness
• sadism
• murderousness
• inhumanity
• viciousness
• fiendishness
• cruelness
• barbarousness
• inhumanness
• wantonness
• ruthlessness
• ferocity
• mercilessness
• atrociousness
• meanness
• pitilessness
• ferociousness
• grimness
• fierceness
• oppressiveness
• bloodthirstiness
• spitefulness
• malevolence
• hard-heartedness
• sanguinity
• maliciousness
• unfeelingness
• malignity
• bloodlust
• hatefulness
• harshness
• heavy-handedness
• nastiness
• fellness
• cattiness
• despitefulness
• sanguineness
• hardhandedness

Antonyms & Near Antonyms

• sympathy
• compassion
• humanity
• kindness
• humaneness
• benignity
• tenderness
• warmth
• tenderheartedness
• kindheartedness
• good-heartedness
• warmness
• pity
• mercy
• leniency
• clemency
• warmheartedness
• charitableness
• mercifulness

Examples of truculence in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Le Yucheng opened the door to such a meeting after months of diplomatic outbursts from Beijing, where the truculence of the Chinese Foreign Ministry has been matched by military saber-rattling and a crackdown in Hong Kong. —Joel Gehrke, Washington Examiner, 13 Aug. 2020

And he’s defended that position, albeit with unnecessary truculence, in numerous appearances on Capitol Hill. —Michael Hiltzik, Los Angeles Times, 24 Mar. 2021

Jacobs appeared before the Subcommittee on Health and the Environment on October 17, 1983, and spoke with truculence. —WIRED, 5 Jan. 2023

His was a presidency built atop mood and resentment and truculence. —Robert Schlesinger, The New Republic, 16 Nov. 2022