Synonyms of cruelty

cruelty

noun

ˈkrü(-ə)l-tē 

as in brutality

disposition to willfully inflict pain and suffering on others

centuries after he ravaged Europe, Attila the Hun remains notorious for his cruelty

Synonyms & Similar Words

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

Antonyms & Near Antonyms

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

Example Sentences

Recent Examples of cruelty

But there is no reliable historical evidence for the cruelty, extramarital affairs, or emotional abuse that Monster attributes to the Borden household. — Randall Colburn, Entertainment Weekly, 24 Sep. 2026

The beauty of the landscape will sit alongside the cruelty unfolding among the characters. — Callum McLennan, Variety, 23 Sep. 2026

The accounts of her cruelty were gruesome — publicly torturing women, cutting off their fingers, murdering hundreds of them. — Elisabeth Garber-Paul, Rolling Stone, 23 Sep. 2026

And wouldn’t the Father’s spree, therefore, be an act not of cruelty, but of liberation? — Matthew McLean, Artforum, 22 Sep. 2026