brutality

noun bru·tal·i·ty \ brü-ˈta-lə-tē \

|Updated on: 7 Jun 2018

Examples: brutality in a Sentence

Definition of brutality

plural brutalities

1 : the quality or state of being brutal

2 : a brutal act or course of action

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Examples of brutality in a Sentence

the brutalities of a prison
the police were accused of brutality for using excessive force in making arrests

Recent Examples of brutality from the Web

Later, Karamo has a conversation with the episode’s subject, a police officer, about the incident, and about larger issues of race and police brutality.

— richard lawson, HWD, "Why L.G.B.T.-Centered TV Is Stuck in the Past," 30 May 2018
Conservatives like the substance of what Sommers and Shapiro have to say and disagree with Kaepernick and his imitators about the police brutality issue.

— matthew yglesias, Vox, "NFL owners are stifling speech, but it’s not called “no-platforming” when you’re rich and own the platform," 25 May 2018
Official brutality has fuelled unrest: extra-judicial killings and torture are commonplace.

— The Economist, "Terrorists in southern Thailand go on a bombing spree," 24 May 2018
The most recent arrest came at dawn on Wednesday morning when security officers arrived at the Cairo home of Wael Abbas, an award-winning writer and activist known for distributing evidence of torture and police brutality.

— jared malsin, WSJ, "Egypt Widens Security Crackdown as Concerns of Unrest Grow," 23 May 2018
The revelation comes as concerns over law enforcement’s use of facial recognition technology have intensified amid mass protests in the U.S. in recent years over everything from police brutality to gun control to deportation tactics.

— jason del rey, Recode, "Amazon is selling facial recognition technology to police, allowing them to analyze ‘millions of faces in real-time’," 22 May 2018
Roman military accounts from the early centuries CE describe the tribes of north-central Europe as fierce fighters who took the field with large forces and treated vanquished foes with ritual brutality.

— kiona n. smith, Ars Technica, "2,000 years ago in Denmark, a fierce battle left dozens dead," 21 May 2018
Even with its unyielding quality, Wilson was committed to forging beauty from brutality by producing beads from the almost unmalleable wire.

— National Geographic, "These Artists Are Making Jewelry to Help Protect Their Country's Wildlife," 17 May 2018
With exposure can come brutality in the form of hate tweets and irate emails.

— olga khazan, The Atlantic, "Professors Explain Why It's Hard to Write Online," 11 May 2018

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'brutality.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.