1
as in brutal
having or showing the desire to inflict severe pain and suffering on others
a barbaric dictator who tortured his own people with no qualms
Synonyms & Similar Words
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Antonyms & Near Antonyms
2
as in barbarian
not civilized
the barbaric forebears of modern mankind
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Antonyms & Near Antonyms
Example Sentences
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Recent Examples of barbaric
What kind of barbaric regime puts a school for little girls in a compound that used to be military?
—
Arkansas Online, 14 Mar. 2026
Is there any knowing what would have happened, had these crimes not been captured in all their barbaric glory?
—Literary Hub, 4 Mar. 2026
Then there's all the additional atrocities she's been exposed to this season, like the barbaric violence of the Legion.
—Lauren Huff, Entertainment Weekly, 28 Jan. 2026
These brave people have been risking their lives daily to protest this barbaric regime for more than two weeks now.
—Voice Of The People, New York Daily News, 16 Jan. 2026
See All Example Sentences for barbaric
Arkansas Online, 14 Mar. 2026
Is there any knowing what would have happened, had these crimes not been captured in all their barbaric glory?
—Literary Hub, 4 Mar. 2026
Then there's all the additional atrocities she's been exposed to this season, like the barbaric violence of the Legion.
—Lauren Huff, Entertainment Weekly, 28 Jan. 2026
These brave people have been risking their lives daily to protest this barbaric regime for more than two weeks now.
—Voice Of The People, New York Daily News, 16 Jan. 2026
See All Example Sentences for barbaric
Recent Examples of Synonyms for barbaric
Adjective
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Caesar Lorenzo Wilson, 54, was sentenced to 224 years in prison for the 2024 murder of University of Colorado Colorado Springs (UCCS) professor Haleh Abghari, a killing prosecutors say began as a burglary and ended in a brutal stabbing inside her own home.—
Stepheny Price,
FOXNews.com,
8 May 2026
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No arrests have ever been made in the brutal killings of Russell and Shirley Dermond.—
Dan Raby,
CBS News,
8 May 2026
Adjective
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For the design of the barbarian figure, Sweet reached out to Mark Taylor, an artist and designer at Mattel.—
Sanat Pai RaikarAll,
Encyclopedia Britannica,
4 May 2026
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When the Western Roman Empire fell in the fifth century C.E., Europe was plunged into chaos as barbarian Germanic forces advanced south—or so the story goes.—
Emma Gometz,
Scientific American,
29 Apr. 2026
Adjective
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Its cruel and even lawless excesses have reverberated around the globe.—
Kansas City Star,
Kansas City Star,
9 May 2026
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This is how cruel football can be.—
Elias Burke,
New York Times,
7 May 2026
Adjective
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If Pan American Airways represented, at its height, victory and suavity, the country achieving a kind of European state of grace, then Spirit was the exact opposite—synonymous with the rowdy and the rude at the heart of the American character.—
Doreen St. Félix,
New Yorker,
9 May 2026
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But please don’t be that rude person calling over and over to someone who is not available at the time.—
Judith Martin,
Mercury News,
8 May 2026
Adjective
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Critic Rex Reed, who died Tuesday at 87, built his career on savage, acerbic reviews delivered with little restraint, earning a reputation as a provocateur.—
Theater Critic,
Los Angeles Times,
12 May 2026
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Initially a beachy utopia where the children run free among nature, things become increasingly savage as help appears to be ever further away.—
Connor Sturges,
Condé Nast Traveler,
6 May 2026
Adjective
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But Fredrik Berselius’s cooking is too weird and wild to fit the bounds of one creed.—
Ligaya Mishan,
New York Times,
11 May 2026
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Yet, having said all of that, the bottom line is the Rays went into the weekend with a 7½-game lead in the AL wild-card race and ended the weekend in first place in the AL East.—
John Romano,
The Orlando Sentinel,
11 May 2026
Adjective
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Connecticut led New York 13-4 through the first four minutes of the third quarter, but Stewart killed the momentum with a vicious block from behind as Miller went up for a fast-break layup off of a steal.—
Emily Adams,
Hartford Courant,
9 May 2026
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Harris’s film, though, trades brainy barbs for some pretty vicious violence as a set of twins, badly scarred from a childhood fire, go on a journey to confront the root of their trauma.—
Juan A. Ramírez,
Vogue,
8 May 2026
Adjective
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Lies told by people who are simply too afraid to look at such an ugly, barbarous reality.—
Clare Malone,
New Yorker,
19 Jan. 2026
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In the northwest suburbs of Minneapolis, a man dressed as a cop shot two Democratic lawmakers and their spouses, killing the DFL speaker of the House and her husband in a barbarous (and politically motivated) atrocity.—
Jeffrey Blehar,
National Review,
14 June 2025
Cite this Entry
“Barbaric.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/barbaric. Accessed 14 May. 2026.
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