ferocity

American  

[fuh-ros-i-tee] / fəˈrɒs ɪ ti /

noun

• ferocities
  plural

1. a ferocious quality or state; savage fierceness.

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Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• nonferocity
  noun

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• ferocities
  plural

Etymology

Origin of ferocity

1600–10; < Latin ferōcitās, equivalent to ferōc-, stem of ferōx ferocious + -itās -ity

Explanation

Ferocity is the state of being ferocious — wild, scary, and fierce. A five year-old girl pretending to be a lion will display her ferocity by roaring and baring her teeth. Things known for their ferocity include wild animals, terrifying thunder storms, and fierce battlefield fights. A furious argument can have an element of ferocity, and so can a wild, loud piece of music. The Latin word ferus, which means "wild," is the root of not only ferocity, but ferocious and fierce. Ferocity came directly from the Latin ferocitatem, "fierceness, or wildness."

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

ferocity ferocities

Today it reaches Muslim Americans and other minorities with the same ferocity it reaches synagogues.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 27, 2026

“Anybody who disagrees with his notion of how war is to be fought, which is with incredible and relatively unrestrained ferocity, they’re also suspect.”

From Salon ● May 1, 2026

The ferocity of the Lakers answer rattled Houston such that the Rockets were hit with two technical fouls on unbridled anger from Jae’Sean Tate and coach Ime Udoka.

From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 19, 2026

City's cheers would have been heard all the way from west London - and the ferocity with which Guardiola, his players and the travelling fans celebrated showed how important a victory this was.

From BBC ● Apr. 12, 2026

The knights of the Round Table were sent out as a measure against Fort Mayne, and the choleric barons who lived by Fort Mayne took the cudgels with the ferocity of despair.

From "The Once and Future King" by T. H. White

Pieces by Ravel and Pablo de Sarasate shone as they should, and the evening’s unlikely centerpiece, Ginastera’s Violin Concerto, was a 30-minute fever dream of serialist fancies and ferocities.

From New York Times ● Apr. 28, 2024

Whitman relished these energies; these ferocities in our beings. 

From Slate ● Jan. 9, 2015

Indeed, in this play of gloomy wedlock and ill-starred infidelities, he preaches a sad sermon with his quips and makes Margaret Lawrence, who usually seems bearable if not entrancing, a monstrous brute of conjugal ferocities.

From Time Magazine Archive

The altar boy who might charm the nuns could take on ferocities.

From Time Magazine Archive

Not content with attributing to him ferocities of which he never was guilty, the chronicles have altogether ignored the fairer side of his character.

From Canadian Notabilities, Volume 1 by John Charles Dent