as in savage
not civilized
people who were regarded as barbarian by the ancient Romans
Synonyms & Similar Words
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Antonyms & Near Antonyms
as in primitive
an uncivilized person
the invading Germanic tribes were viewed as barbarians by the citizens of ancient Rome
Synonyms & Similar Words
Example Sentences
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Recent Examples of barbarian
Jordan Moreau,
Variety,
24 July 2025
The economy will not thrive on backward, barbarian technologies and our babies will suffer from the burden of debt, bad air and blackouts.
—
Letters To The Editor,
The Orlando Sentinel,
26 June 2025
Jordan Moreau,
Variety,
16 Apr. 2026
In most academic histories of European imperialism written in this century, the Europeans are the barbarians, killing and raping and looting on an unprecedented scale.
—
David A. Bell,
The New York Review of Books,
19 Mar. 2026
See All Example Sentences for barbarian
Adjective
Bailey plays half-elf ranger Vex, O’Brien is her twin brother Vax, Willingham is the lovable barbarian Grog, Johnson is the holy gnome cleric Pike, Jaffe is the royal gunslinger Percy, Ray is magical half-elf druid Keyleth and Riegel is the raunchy gnome bard Scanlan.
—
Jordan Moreau,
Variety,
24 July 2025
The economy will not thrive on backward, barbarian technologies and our babies will suffer from the burden of debt, bad air and blackouts.
—
Letters To The Editor,
The Orlando Sentinel,
26 June 2025
Noun
In the reboot, Russell Crowe plays Juan Sánchez-Villalobos Ramírez, the warrior first played by Connery, and Dave Bautista is The Kurgan, Brown’s brutal barbarian from the first movie.
—
Jordan Moreau,
Variety,
16 Apr. 2026
In most academic histories of European imperialism written in this century, the Europeans are the barbarians, killing and raping and looting on an unprecedented scale.
—
David A. Bell,
The New York Review of Books,
19 Mar. 2026
See All Example Sentences for barbarian
Recent Examples of Synonyms for barbarian
Adjective
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For my microgeneration, the disillusionment crept in with the savage failure of the Iraq War.
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Set in the fictional lands of Westeros, House of the Dragon depicts a savage succession struggle within House Targaryen and a resulting civil war, known as the Dance of the Dragons.
Noun
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Each is a move to control more of the layer between the customer and the underlying financial primitive, whether that primitive is a card rail, a deposit account, or a stablecoin reserve.
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What follows this admission is a piercing dissection not of the art itself, but of frameworks of looking at Black art and life that go beyond racist tropes disguised as appeals to the primitive, the spontaneous, the corporeal.
Adjective
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It’s widely considered rude and annoying when people cluster by the train doors if there are more people on the platform attempting to get on.
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Many of these terms were meant as insults and were – and remain today – tremendously rude, but others reflect the bewilderment of trying to categorize people who don’t fit into standard categories easily.
Adjective
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The new iteration sees The Cat in the Hat, voiced by Bill Hader, fighting for his job as a professional mischief-maker brought in to cheer up lackluster children after his wild antics go to far.
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Situated in western Canada’s Alberta province, a tapestry of the Rocky Mountains serves as the backdrop across this wild frontier of limestone giants and ancient glaciers.
Adjective
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But because of his radical and violent fight for freedom, Dessalines’ enemies often described him as ferocious and barbaric, both during his lifetime and in the centuries after his death.
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The vitality of her language, its frolicsome dance with personification, communicates its own resistance in the face of an indifferent world, exploited by imperialist greed and barbaric, militant might.
Adjective
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Seeking to eliminate Berber forces in the barren mountains of northern Morocco, seven soldiers obediently follow their fanatical sergeant (Víctor Clavijo) into barbarous depths of depravity.
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Lies told by people who are simply too afraid to look at such an ugly, barbarous reality.
Adjective
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Colonial technology came for his kingdom, regardless, and the forces of modernity ended up demonizing those who didn’t embrace technology as backward and uncivilized.
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Rather than a barrier between north and south, Arab and African, civilized and uncivilized, the Sahara emerges as a varied landscape deeply enmeshed in trading, religious, and other networks that stretch beyond its vast expanse.
Cite this Entry
“Barbarian.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/barbarian. Accessed 26 Jun. 2026.
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