savagery

noun

sav·​age·​ry ˈsa-vi-jə-rē 

ˈsa-vij-rē

plural savageries

1

a

: the quality of being savage

b

: an act of cruelty or violence

2

: an uncivilized state

Synonyms

• atrociousness
• atrocity
• barbarity
• barbarousness
• brutality
• cruelness
• cruelty
• fiendishness
• heartlessness
• inhumanity
• inhumanness
• sadism
• savageness
• truculence
• viciousness
• wantonness

Examples of savagery in a Sentence

The savagery of the attack was horrifying.

an act of pure savagery

the savageries committed by the soldiers

Recent Examples on the Web

The men who abducted Paiva were indicted by federal prosecutors in 2014—but they have been protected by an amnesty law, passed as the regime was coming to an end, which has effectively kept the country from reckoning with the savagery of military rule. —Jon Lee Anderson, New Yorker, 7 Apr. 2025

Anderson loves visceral, gut-punch action, and in the past he’s brought to fairly generic stories an invigorating sense of menace and savagery. —Bilge Ebiri, Vulture, 6 Mar. 2025

That frenzied feeding in the churning water, the savagery and pointlessness of appetite. —Joyce Carol Oates, The New Yorker, 16 Mar. 2025

The savagery of the satire and the humor of the animation, modeled after Feiffer’s drawings, make this cartoon as funny as a Mark Twain story. —Jeremy Fassler, Vulture, 2 Mar. 2025

Word History

First Known Use

circa 1616, in the meaning defined at sense 1a

Rhymes for savagery

• accessary
• adversary
• ancillary
• arbitrary
• aviary
• axillary
• beriberi
• breviary
• budgetary
• capillary
• catenary
• cautionary

Kids Definition

savagery

noun

sav·​age·​ry ˈsav-ij-(ə-)rē 

plural savageries

1

: savage disposition or action : cruelty

2

: the state of being savage