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feral

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noun

Synonym Chooser

How does the adjective feral differ from other similar words?

Some common synonyms of feral are bestial, brutal, and brutish. While all these words mean "characteristic of an animal in nature, action, or instinct," feral suggests the savagery or ferocity of wild animals.

the struggle to survive unleashed their feral impulses

In what contexts can bestial take the place of feral?

While the synonyms bestial and feral are close in meaning, bestial suggests a state of degradation unworthy of humans and fit only for beasts.

bestial depravity

When would brutal be a good substitute for feral?

Although the words brutal and feral have much in common, brutal applies to people, their acts, or their words and suggests a lack of intelligence, feeling, or humanity.

a senseless and brutal war

When is brutish a more appropriate choice than feral?

The meanings of brutish and feral largely overlap; however, brutish stresses likeness to an animal in low intelligence, in base appetites, and in behavior based on instinct.

brutish stupidity

Example Sentences

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Recent Examples of feral
Noun
Something evil's lurking in the dark In Rice's books, Revenant vampires are terrifying, mindless, feral monsters. Sydney Bucksbaum, Entertainment Weekly, 21 Oct. 2025 The animals are difficult to survey, but experts estimate that the United States is now home to at least six million feral hogs, descendants of those early farm animals and Eurasian wild boars that arrived later. New York Times, 16 Oct. 2025 For example, in Ecuador’s Galápagos Islands, invasive species like rats and feral cats are considered one of the main causes of extinctions, including to the islands’ famous birds. Jessica Beaudette, The Conversation, 11 Oct. 2025 Like a faulty fire hydrant, or a vacuum cleaner whizzing up and down with the uncontrollable hysteria of a feral raccoon, our directive was to suck up as many clicks as possible through every angle imaginable. Kieran Press-Reynolds, Pitchfork, 8 Oct. 2025 See All Example Sentences for feral
Recent Examples of Synonyms for feral
Adjective
  • The shocking circumstances of this clip may seem too wild to be real, and in this case, that's true.
    Kelli Bender, PEOPLE, 21 Oct. 2025
  • And the public gets some wild movies and TV shows that would otherwise never get made, doing crazy-stupid stuff like recreating Napoleonic-era sea battles off the coast of the Galapagos.
    John Lopez, HollywoodReporter, 21 Oct. 2025
Adjective
  • These experiments came after a deep-learning model sifted through possibilities to find high-probability candidates, a definitive transformation from brute-force searches typically favored in the past.
    Srishti Gupta, Interesting Engineering, 23 Oct. 2025
  • But recent history suggests that its mission would have less to do with proffering aid than with complementing the Kremlin’s liberal use of brute force.
    Tetiana Kotelnykova, The Atlantic, 22 Oct. 2025
Noun
  • How did Indigenous people in North America interpret fossils of dinosaurs and other long-extinct animals?
    Literary Hub, Literary Hub, 22 Oct. 2025
  • His teachers corrected his posture and his hands; the angle of the arms and the way the wrist releases into the top of the drum, or drum head which usually is made from animal skin.
    Kansas City Star, Kansas City Star, 22 Oct. 2025
Adjective
  • This experience prioritizes the animals’ wellbeing by focusing on increasing the population, collecting data, and working with experts who have success in re-wilding.
    Jack Tydeman, Travel + Leisure, 1 Sep. 2025
Adjective
  • Simulations take place between October and March in brutal winter conditions, when the Gobi freezes solid.
    Rosanna Philpott, CNN Money, 24 Oct. 2025
  • This early modern period would set the foundations of the rise of the transatlantic slave trade and a new form of slavery—hereditary racial slavery—that would be central to the creation of the racial-caste hierarchy and to the rise of Britain’s wealthy and brutal Caribbean slave empire.
    Literary Hub, Literary Hub, 23 Oct. 2025
Noun
  • The wee beastie ends the season in Arthur’s body, ready to continue its freaky little business.
    Noel Murray, Vulture, 24 Sep. 2025
  • Most of the remaining beasties now live on remote islands near the equator, and most humans would conveniently like to forget them.
    Stephanie Zacharek, Time, 30 June 2025
Adjective
  • Rader’s double life as a doting father and savage murderer is the subject of the new Netflix documentary My Father, the BTK Killer, based on his daughter Kerri Rawson’s search to make sense of the secret double life her father hid from his family.
    Johnny Dodd, PEOPLE, 22 Oct. 2025
  • The ensuing carnage was swift and savage.
    Paul Solotaroff, Rolling Stone, 12 Oct. 2025
Adjective
  • Dæmons seem to be an outward manifestation of the complex nature of humans that encompasses, male, female and animalistic characteristics that hint towards the breaking of gender binaries and the possibilities of interspecies relations.
    Literary Hub, Literary Hub, 17 Oct. 2025
  • Scary Farm visitors will enter the maze as military recruits arriving at the secret lab to be transformed into animalistic super soldiers using one of three methods — surgery, chemical treatments or genetic mutations.
    Brady MacDonald, Oc Register, 12 Sep. 2025

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Cite this Entry

“Feral.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/feral. Accessed 28 Oct. 2025.

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