Synonyms of brutality

brutality

noun

brü-ˈta-lə-tē 

1

as in cruelty

disposition to willfully inflict pain and suffering on others

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

Synonyms & Similar Words

• cruelty
• atrocity
• savagery
• barbarity
• inhumanity
• sadism
• savageness
• heartlessness
• murderousness
• cruelness
• viciousness
• fiendishness
• barbarousness
• truculence
• ruthlessness
• inhumanness
• wantonness
• mercilessness
• atrociousness
• ferocity
• oppressiveness
• meanness
• grimness
• pitilessness
• ferociousness
• fierceness
• bloodthirstiness
• malevolence
• bloodlust
• spitefulness
• hatefulness
• hard-heartedness
• maliciousness
• unfeelingness
• sanguinity
• harshness
• malignity
• heavy-handedness
• nastiness
• fellness
• sanguineness
• despitefulness
• cattiness
• hardhandedness

Antonyms & Near Antonyms

• sympathy
• humanity
• compassion
• kindness
• humaneness
• tenderness
• benignity
• warmth
• tenderheartedness
• warmness
• kindheartedness
• good-heartedness
• mercy
• pity
• leniency
• clemency
• warmheartedness
• charitableness
• mercifulness

2

as in brutishness

the manifestation of the traits or the gratification of the appetites of a lower animal

the disconcerting ease with which the people adopted the brutality of the enemy invaders

Synonyms & Similar Words

• cruelty
• brutishness
• animalism
• bestiality
• animality
• beastliness
• barbarity
• sensuality
• physicality
• savagery
• rudeness
• carnality
• swinishness
• sadism
• boorishness
• viciousness
• crudeness
• grossness
• coarseness
• loutishness
• wantonness

Antonyms & Near Antonyms

• spirituality
• intellectuality
• nobility
• magnanimity
• compassion
• kindness
• benevolence
• beneficence
• benignity
• kindliness
• high-mindedness
• greatheartedness
• tenderheartedness
• kindheartedness
• good-heartedness

Example Sentences

Recent Examples of brutality

The brutality and inhumanity that white Americans inflicted on free and enslaved Black people drove them out. — Karen Masterson, The Conversation, 5 Oct. 2026

To convey the brutality of the method, activists tend to bring up the counsel of the World Society for the Protection of Animals, which has advised that nitrogen hypoxia is not fit to put down any mammal. — Doreen St. Félix, New Yorker, 3 Oct. 2026

The case got widespread attention because of the brutality of the killing, the ages of the people involved and because a satanic symbol was carved into the victim’s body. — ABC News, 28 Sep. 2026

That reporting revealed that the state frequently seizes money from legal settlements stemming from medical malpractice, police brutality, workplace injury and other wrongful death lawsuits. — Ginny Monk, Hartford Courant, 28 Sep. 2026