Brutality

//bɹuːˈtælɪti// noun

noun ·Moderate ·High school level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    The state of being brutal. countable, uncountable
  2. 2
    a brutal barbarous savage act wordnet
  3. 3
    A cruel or savage act. countable, uncountable

    "‘Then the father has a great fight with his terrible conscience,’ said Munday with granite seriousness. ‘Should he make a row with the police[…]? Or should he say nothing about it and condone brutality for fear of appearing in the newspapers?"

  4. 4
    the trait of extreme cruelty wordnet
  5. 5
    The use of excessive physical force, often in the form of violence. countable, uncountable

    "police brutality"

Synonyms

All synonyms
ferociousnessabominablenessacutenessadamanimalismanimality

Example

More examples

"The police brutality incidents nearly set off a riot."

Etymology

From brutal + -ity.

Related phrases

police brutalitybrutish violencehitting punching

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.