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
• savageness
• sadism
• murderousness
• heartlessness
• cruelness
• viciousness
• fiendishness
• barbarousness
• ruthlessness
• truculence
• inhumanness
• wantonness
• oppressiveness
• mercilessness
• atrociousness
• meanness
• ferocity
• ferociousness
• grimness
• pitilessness
• fierceness
• bloodthirstiness
• malevolence
• spitefulness
• bloodlust
• hatefulness
• maliciousness
• hard-heartedness
• unfeelingness
• harshness
• sanguinity
• 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 series follows a fictionalized version of the Westies, a small Irish-American gang in the mid- to late-20th century whose ruthlessness and brutality gave them an outsized reputation. — Jesse Whittock, Deadline, 2 July 2026

The massive book covers the conflict’s roots, its Enlightenment underpinnings, its extreme brutality, and its global repercussions. — Barbara Spindel, Christian Science Monitor, 1 July 2026

Why won’t the State Police or the governor’s office come out and condemn this level of brutality? — Boston Herald Editorial Staff, Boston Herald, 30 June 2026

But it’s lost on these boys, whose youth has been ground away by the drug trade’s meaningless brutality. — Ew Staff, Entertainment Weekly, 25 June 2026