as in cruelty
disposition to willfully inflict pain and suffering on others
more than one reluctant dental patient has been tempted to level the charge of barbarity against their dentist
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Recent Examples of barbarity
In the face of tragedy and crisis and inequality and barbarity, artists make work.
—
Chadd Scott, Forbes, 2 Oct. 2024
Rupturing the viewer’s passive gaze, Yellowjackets’ gut-wrenching barbarity is situated in these corporeal incisions and dissections.
—Sakhi Thirani, JSTOR Daily, 22 Mar. 2023
The Russian president also encouraged acts of barbarity against his critics.
—Andrei Kolesnikov, Foreign Affairs, 18 Apr. 2022
Putin’s quasi-genocidal barbarities in Ukraine and Xi’s industrial-scale repression in Xinjiang threaten to restore a world of autocratic impunity and rampant atrocity.
—Hal Brands, Foreign Affairs, 25 Feb. 2025
See All Example Sentences for barbarity
Chadd Scott, Forbes, 2 Oct. 2024
Rupturing the viewer’s passive gaze, Yellowjackets’ gut-wrenching barbarity is situated in these corporeal incisions and dissections.
—Sakhi Thirani, JSTOR Daily, 22 Mar. 2023
The Russian president also encouraged acts of barbarity against his critics.
—Andrei Kolesnikov, Foreign Affairs, 18 Apr. 2022
Putin’s quasi-genocidal barbarities in Ukraine and Xi’s industrial-scale repression in Xinjiang threaten to restore a world of autocratic impunity and rampant atrocity.
—Hal Brands, Foreign Affairs, 25 Feb. 2025
See All Example Sentences for barbarity
Cite this Entry
“Barbarity.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/barbarity. Accessed 28 Apr. 2025.
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