Atrocity

//əˈtɹɒsɪti// noun

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    An extremely cruel act; a horrid act of injustice. countable

    "to carry out / commit / perpetrate an atrocity"

  2. 2
    an act of atrocious cruelty wordnet
  3. 3
    The quality or state of being atrocious; enormous wickedness; extreme criminality or cruelty. uncountable

    "1553, John Bradford, letter, in Miles Coverdale (ed.), Certain Most Godly, Fruitful, and Comfortable letters, London: John Day, 1564, pp. 481-482, Thys wil I muse on, & way with my self, [tha]t I may dulye knowe, both in me and in al other things, the atrocitie and bitternesse of synne which dwelleth in me, & so may the more hartely geue ouer my self wholy to [th]e lord Christ my Sauiour,"

  4. 4
    the quality of being shockingly cruel and inhumane wordnet
  5. 5
    An object considered to be extremely unattractive or undesirable. countable

    "[S]ome of the printers were good singers and others good performers on the guitar and on that atrocity the accordeon—[…]"

Etymology

From Middle French atrocité, from Latin atrōcitātem, from atrox (“terrible, cruel”) + -tās, from āter (“matte black”).

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