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
The dehumanizing treatment prisoners received on Devil’s Island was, in effect, a continuation of the barbarity long inflicted on French Guiana’s enslaved population.
—
Rob Crossan, JSTOR Daily, 13 Dec. 2024
Guillén’s 2017 caricature shows Venezuelan dictator Nicolás Maduro clubbing a woman representing democracy to a bloody pulp, the way his security forces were savaging pro-democracy demonstrators that year — barbarity a U.N. report designated as crimes against humanity.
—Tim Padgett, Sun Sentinel, 18 Aug. 2024
Israel has also tried highlighting Hamas’s barbarity, including by screening its own supercut of the October 7 massacre for select audiences, including groups in the United States.
—P. W. Singer, Foreign Affairs, 5 Dec. 2023
In the face of tragedy and crisis and inequality and barbarity, artists make work.
—Chadd Scott, Forbes, 2 Oct. 2024
See All Example Sentences for barbarity
Rob Crossan, JSTOR Daily, 13 Dec. 2024
Guillén’s 2017 caricature shows Venezuelan dictator Nicolás Maduro clubbing a woman representing democracy to a bloody pulp, the way his security forces were savaging pro-democracy demonstrators that year — barbarity a U.N. report designated as crimes against humanity.
—Tim Padgett, Sun Sentinel, 18 Aug. 2024
Israel has also tried highlighting Hamas’s barbarity, including by screening its own supercut of the October 7 massacre for select audiences, including groups in the United States.
—P. W. Singer, Foreign Affairs, 5 Dec. 2023
In the face of tragedy and crisis and inequality and barbarity, artists make work.
—Chadd Scott, Forbes, 2 Oct. 2024
See All Example Sentences for barbarity
Cite this Entry
“Barbarity.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/barbarity. Accessed 13 Mar. 2025.
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