murderousness

noun

Definition of murderousnessnext
as in bloodthirstiness

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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 murderousness The guy was a sleaze, but there’s a pretty big gap between sleaziness and murderousness. — Sophie Brookover, Vulture, 12 Dec. 2025
Recent Examples of Synonyms for murderousness
  1. bloodthirstiness
  2. cruelty
  3. bloodlust
  4. savagery
  5. barbarity
  6. sadism
  7. inhumanity
  8. heartlessness
Noun
  • The findings can’t be extrapolated to the real world — the scenarios were extreme, with the regimes often facing first strikes or annihilation — but revealed AIs’ skill at strategic reasoning, as well as a certain bloodthirstiness.
    — Tom Chivers, semafor.com, 4 Mar. 2026
Definition of bloodthirstiness
Noun
  • Police have arrested a woman on an animal cruelty charge in connection with a dog that suffered weight loss, dehydration and other issues.
    — Justin Muszynski, Hartford Courant, 11 Nov. 2026
  • And when Here There Are Blueberries does shift its lens the testimony of Auschwitz survivor Lili Jacob, also embodied by Cunningham, and an album of photos that depict the cruelty Höcker’s collection elides, the reversal stuns you.
    — Jackson McHenry, Vulture, 10 Nov. 2026
Definition of cruelty
Noun
  • As these dopamine chasers inflict their limbic systems on every film, cheering for lizard-brain human suffering, the Olds scramble to give all that bloodlust a higher purpose, laundering it into political statements right there in the Q&A.
    — Joseph Kahn, HollywoodReporter, 8 Oct. 2026
  • Wolf succumbs to Shura, a demonic force in the game’s mythology that possesses those who give in to bloodlust.
    — Aman Kumar, Encyclopedia Britannica, 27 Aug. 2026
Definition of bloodlust
Noun
  • Adapting Su Tong’s 1990 novel Wives and Concubines, Zhang took a stark tale of female oppression and turned it into a haunting sonata of color, light, composition, mood, and sound, without diluting its slow-burn savagery.
    — Bilge Ebiri, Vulture, 6 Nov. 2026
  • The poem’s anguished meditations on love’s savagery and isolation are designed to draw blood.
    — Merve Emre, New Yorker, 21 Oct. 2026
Definition of savagery
Noun
  • The Soviets and their allies might have sophisticated weaponry and boundless barbarity.
    — Scott Simon, NPR, 24 Oct. 2026
  • What wasn’t new was the continuation of the kind of barbarity that dominated conflicts of recent memory, from Cambodia to Rwanda.
    — David Friend, Vanity Fair, 10 Sep. 2026
Definition of barbarity
Noun
  • School Girls; Or, The African Mean Girls Play, might well come closest in approach to Kimberly Belflower’s urgent John Proctor Is The Villain in its insistence that homeroom sadism doesn’t just spring from hormones or reindeer game competition.
    — Greg Evans, Deadline, 28 Sep. 2026
  • Lagioia’s book goes into disturbing detail about what came next; suffice it to say that Luca’s murder tested the bounds of sadism.
    — Jay Weissberg, Variety, 4 Sep. 2026
Definition of sadism
Noun
  • As much as many of us want to see justice prevail for all the lies, corruption, inhumanity and retribution, Americans are hurting, and the focus should be on relieving that hurt.
    — Chicago Tribune, Chicago Tribune, 10 Nov. 2026
  • The brutality and inhumanity that white Americans inflicted on free and enslaved Black people drove them out.
    — Karen Masterson, The Conversation, 5 Oct. 2026
Definition of inhumanity
Noun
  • Their resistance to Trump’s bullying, corruption, and heartlessness has gained new political force.
    — David Remnick, New Yorker, 7 Nov. 2026
  • These young graduates start out naive about the heartlessness of the corporate world and harbor illusory hopes for success in unforgiving professions.
    — George Packer, The Atlantic, 16 Mar. 2026
Definition of heartlessness

Browse Nearby Words

murderous
murderousness
murders
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Cite this Entry

“Murderousness.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/murderousness. Accessed 15 Nov. 2026.

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