Synonyms of cruelty

cruelty

noun

ˈkrü(-ə)l-tē 

as in brutality

disposition to willfully inflict pain and suffering on others

centuries after he ravaged Europe, Attila the Hun remains notorious for his cruelty

Synonyms & Similar Words

• brutality
• atrocity
• barbarity
• inhumanity
• savagery
• sadism
• savageness
• heartlessness
• cruelness
• murderousness
• viciousness
• fiendishness
• barbarousness
• wantonness
• inhumanness
• truculence
• ruthlessness
• mercilessness
• meanness
• atrociousness
• ferocity
• oppressiveness
• pitilessness
• fierceness
• grimness
• ferociousness
• bloodthirstiness
• spitefulness
• malevolence
• maliciousness
• hatefulness
• hard-heartedness
• bloodlust
• malignity
• unfeelingness
• harshness
• sanguinity
• fellness
• nastiness
• sanguineness
• despitefulness
• cattiness
• heavy-handedness
• hardhandedness

Antonyms & Near Antonyms

• compassion
• sympathy
• humanity
• kindness
• humaneness
• tenderness
• benignity
• warmth
• tenderheartedness
• kindheartedness
• pity
• warmness
• good-heartedness
• mercy
• leniency
• clemency
• warmheartedness
• charitableness
• mercifulness

Examples Sentences

Recent Examples of cruelty

Kenneth McMillan effectively plays the grotesque patriarch Baron Vladimir for laughs, creating a jarring contrast with the character's casual cruelty. —Richard Edwards, Space.com, 30 Dec. 2024

The man who owned him ended up pleading guilty to a misdemeanor animal cruelty charge. —Kevin Grasha, The Enquirer, 26 Dec. 2024

His father, Colin Gray, is facing 29 charges — including two counts of involuntary manslaughter, second-degree murder and cruelty to children — related to the shooting at his son’s high school. —Jessica Schladebeck, New York Daily News, 17 Dec. 2024

Oxford, no longer relevant to the contemporary world in so many ways, was advertising its special connection with the cruelty and suffering that had been rolled out across the entire planet, over centuries, and still rolling away. —Daisy Hildyard, The New Yorker, 15 Dec. 2024