as in cruelty
disposition to willfully inflict pain and suffering on others
the unthinkable savageness that must be required to torture a prisoner
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Recent Examples of savageness
Government should tame the savageness of man and make life in this world more gentle, not crueler.
—
Eleanor Dearman, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, 14 Feb. 2026
Eleanor Dearman, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, 14 Feb. 2026
Recent Examples of Synonyms for savageness
Noun
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Her staging of Schiaparelli’s work exposes illusion, cost, and cruelty.—
Literary Hub,
Literary Hub,
11 May 2026
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That’s the charm and cruelty of the NBA Draft Lottery.—
C.J. Holmes,
New York Daily News,
8 May 2026
Noun
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This includes re-enshrining, codifying and strengthening our inalienable rights in the United States and abolishing ICE to ensure immigration and the struggle of migrants is treated as a civilian one, requiring support instead of brutality and criminalization.—
Lucas Robinson,
San Diego Union-Tribune,
7 May 2026
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Although their relationship begins as a love story, the book brings home the profits of Jacob’s earlier brutality—fate catches up to him, and everything that is love and passion sort of spoils into wrath and obsession.—
The New Yorker,
New Yorker,
6 May 2026
Cite this Entry
“Savageness.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/savageness. Accessed 16 May. 2026.
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