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Atrocity
//əˈtɹɒsɪti// noun
Definitions
Noun
- 1 An extremely cruel act; a horrid act of injustice. countable
"to carry out / commit / perpetrate an atrocity"
- 2 an act of atrocious cruelty wordnet
- 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 the quality of being shockingly cruel and inhumane wordnet
- 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”).
See also for "atrocity"
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Unscramble this word: atrocity