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
Relevance
Antonyms & Near Antonyms
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
Antonyms & Near Antonyms
Example Sentences
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Recent Examples of brutality
The brutality of Daedalus’s revenge struck me.
—
Seamus Sullivan
september 29, Literary Hub, 29 Sep. 2025
From Fair Park to Little Mexico and neighborhoods in between, this video series is a closer look at how subjects like police brutality and gentrification have disproportionately affected BIPOC communities in Dallas.
—Brayden Garcia, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, 26 Sep. 2025
Mitchell did receive criticism from a pair of civil-rights attorneys who represent the plaintiffs in a brutality case that first brought OPD into longstanding federal oversight.
—Shomik Mukherjee, Mercury News, 26 Sep. 2025
What follows is a shocking story of brutality, corruption, and a system in collapse.
—Matthew Carey, Deadline, 25 Sep. 2025
See All Example Sentences for brutality
Seamus Sullivan
september 29, Literary Hub, 29 Sep. 2025
From Fair Park to Little Mexico and neighborhoods in between, this video series is a closer look at how subjects like police brutality and gentrification have disproportionately affected BIPOC communities in Dallas.
—Brayden Garcia, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, 26 Sep. 2025
Mitchell did receive criticism from a pair of civil-rights attorneys who represent the plaintiffs in a brutality case that first brought OPD into longstanding federal oversight.
—Shomik Mukherjee, Mercury News, 26 Sep. 2025
What follows is a shocking story of brutality, corruption, and a system in collapse.
—Matthew Carey, Deadline, 25 Sep. 2025
See All Example Sentences for brutality
Recent Examples of Synonyms for brutality
Noun
-
Cobb was arrested and charged with murder in the second degree and cruelty to children in the second degree, both felonies, police said.—
Jeanine Santucci,
USA Today,
7 Oct. 2025
-
Gibson was charged with cruelty to animals, taken into custody, and later released on a $20,000 bond.—
Amber Corrine,
VIBE.com,
7 Oct. 2025
Noun
-
Likewise, young Waller proves a revelation, capable of communicating Danny’s vulnerability and brutishness on the turn of a dime.—
Leslie Felperin,
HollywoodReporter,
7 Sep. 2025
Noun
-
This led to the investigation of Gein’s farm that unearthed his atrocities, including Worden’s body being decapitated, flayed, and hung in his shed.—
Brian Tallerico,
Vulture,
4 Oct. 2025
-
Did Ed Gein have a girlfriend, Adeline Watkins, who introduced him to World War II atrocities?—
JR Radcliffe,
jsonline.com,
3 Oct. 2025
Noun
-
Hope is something that Dior’s creative director Maria Grazia Chiuri can related to, having explored the dualities of hope and despair (as well as lightness and darkness, and fluidity and animalism) in her spring 2023 collection.—
Rosemary Feitelberg,
WWD,
22 Jan. 2025
-
All of a sudden, that animalism has been incarnated.—
Hunter Ingram,
Variety,
25 Mar. 2024
Noun
-
This strangeness causes all sorts of internal agitation, an uneasiness about humanity’s closeness to animality.—
Nicholas Quah,
Vulture,
16 Feb. 2025
-
But also, something more intrinsic — something like her animality.—
Camille Bromley Gabra Zackman Krish Seenivasan David Mason,
New York Times,
6 Jan. 2025
Cite this Entry
“Brutality.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/brutality. Accessed 9 Oct. 2025.
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