1
as in wild
living outdoors without taming or domestication by humans
animal experts discourage homeowners from trying to adopt feral animals as pets
Synonyms & Similar Words
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Antonyms & Near Antonyms
2
as in brute
having or showing the nature and appetites of a lower animal
a novel that reveals just how thin the veneer of civilization is and how feral we are at bottom
Synonyms & Similar Words
Antonyms & Near Antonyms
as in animal
Related Words
Dissimilar Words
Example Sentences
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Recent Examples of feral
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
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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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