1
as in cruelty
disposition to willfully inflict pain and suffering on others
the barbaric wantonness with which the guards treated the prisoners of war
Synonyms & Similar Words
Relevance
Antonyms & Near Antonyms
2
as in grossness
the quality or state of being obscene
novels characterized chiefly by their sheer wantonness
Synonyms & Similar Words
Antonyms & Near Antonyms
Example Sentences
Recent Examples of Synonyms for wantonness
Noun
-
There’s a great line: Honesty without compassion equals cruelty.—
Jayson Jenks,
New York Times,
26 Apr. 2025 -
In each of these films, cruelty commingles with tenderness, and hideous acts take place against backdrops of often stunning natural beauty.—
Justin Chang,
New Yorker,
25 Apr. 2025
Noun
-
Remick is the defendant in two active police brutality lawsuits.—
Nate Gartrell,
Mercury News,
15 Apr. 2025
-
Prosecutors said Mahdi constantly used brutality to solve his problems.—
Arkansas Online,
Arkansas Online,
12 Apr. 2025
Noun
-
Lashing out from the White House, Mr. Trump used a vulgarity to accuse Mr. Xi and Mr. Lam of plotting to exploit the United States.—
Ann Scott Tyson,
Christian Science Monitor,
15 Apr. 2025
-
Those incidents range from keying swastikas to spray-painting other vulgarities.—
Peter D'Abrosca,
FOXNews.com,
12 Apr. 2025
Noun
-
And while producers could appeal the board’s obscenity rulings, most did not.—
Mike Klingaman,
Baltimore Sun,
15 Apr. 2025
-
Skinner’s name was becoming a kind of obscenity in certain pockets of the terraces.—
Megan Feringa,
New York Times,
14 Apr. 2025
Noun
-
Over-Nite Sensation is a triumph: a concentrated digest from perhaps the most popular stretch of his career, and a freeze-frame of his compositional flowering and ingenious lyrical ribaldry.—
Daniel Felsenthal,
The Atlantic,
27 Nov. 2023
-
Finding liberty in punk artistry, Dury updated the tradition of British music-hall ribaldry and rude folk humor.—
Armond White,
National Review,
3 Aug. 2022
Noun
-
The agency also closely oversees the production of synthetic food dyes, checking for impurities that might result in a safety risk.—
Paula Cohen,
CBS News,
22 Apr. 2025
-
Thanks to impurities lodged within minerals, the rocks start to glow in vivid shades of pink, blue, yellow and green.—
David Bressan,
Forbes.com,
17 Apr. 2025
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Cite this Entry
“Wantonness.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/wantonness. Accessed 4 May. 2025.
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