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Examples of sadism in a Sentence
a troubled youth with a streak of sadism in him
Recent Examples of sadism from the Web
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The action is brutal and unsparing but strikingly devoid of sadism; more than once, the movie skips the gory details and cuts to the aftermath, as if to emphasize the finality of all this killing.
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Sibling sadism turns absurdist in Joel Potrykus' Relaxer, in which a passive man-child endures baffling deprivation for no reason other than that his big brother dared him to.
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His work often betrays a distinctly cruel disregard for audience comfort, bordering, at times, on sadism.
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Haynes allows his visitors, many motivated by racist sadism, to execute Leigh over and over again.
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My idea of aliens was informed more by the grimly authoritative accounts in Time Life’s Mysteries of the Unknown; films such as Fire in the Sky, which sensationalized the alien abduction story of Travis Walton; or just the sadism of my boyhood.
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Yet out of this stew of sadism, closeted homosexuality and antediluvian notions of machismo came some great art.
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Her masochism is a perfect fit for Petra's sadism—a warped depiction of perfect love that Fassbinder would take to further extremes in his subsequent melodrama Martha (1974).
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His lament that Hurricane Maria has derailed the federal budget dressed his sadism up in cool, Olympian judgment.
These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'sadism.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
What is the Difference Between the Words masochism & sadism?
Masochism and sadism are both about the enjoyment of pain. Masochism refers to the enjoyment of experiencing pain while sadism refers to the enjoyment of inflicting pain on someone else.
Interestingly, both masochism and sadism are eponymous words. English has thousands of such words, taken from the names of people both real and fictional. Masochism comes from the name of the 19th century German novelist, Leopold von Sacher-Masoch. It is unusual in that it began to be used during the lifetime of the man from whom it originated (Sacher-Masoch died in 1895, and masochism had been in printed use since 1892). Sadism comes from the name of the French writer, the Marquis de Sade (1740-1814).
The two words are not only often encountered in connection with one another, they have been combined into a single word, sadomasochism.
Origin and Etymology of sadism
First Known Use: 1818
in the meaning defined at sense 1
See Words from the same yearsadism Synonyms
Synonyms
atrociousness, atrocity, barbarity, barbarousness, brutality, cruelty, fiendishness, heartlessness, inhumanity, inhumanness, savageness, savagery, truculence, viciousness, wantonness;
Antonyms
benignity, compassion, good-heartedness, humaneness, humanity, kindheartedness, kindness, sympathy, tenderheartedness;
Near Antonyms
tenderness, warmheartedness, warmness, warmth;
charitableness, clemency, leniency, mercifulness, mercy, pity;
Related Words
hard-heartedness, mercilessness, pitilessness, ruthlessness, unfeelingness;
ferociousness, ferocity, fierceness, grimness;
bloodlust, bloodthirstiness, murderousness, sanguineness, sanguinity;
cattiness, hatefulness, malevolence, maliciousness, malignity, meanness, nastiness, spitefulness;
hardhandedness, harshness, heavy-handedness, oppressiveness;
Other Psychology Terms
SADISM Defined for English Language Learners
Definition of sadism for English Language Learners
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: enjoyment that someone gets from being violent or cruel or from causing pain; especially : sexual enjoyment from hurting or punishing someone
Medical Dictionary
medical Definition of sadism
sadistic
\sə-ˈdis-tik also sā- or sa-\ adjectiveBiographical Note for sadism
Learn More about sadism
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See words that rhyme with sadism Thesaurus: All synonyms and antonyms for sadism Spanish Central: Translation of sadism Nglish: Translation of sadism for Spanish speakers Britannica.com: Encyclopedia article about sadism
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