atrocity
[uh-tros-i-tee]
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Origin of atrocity
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Examples from the Web for atrocities
Contemporary Examples
Many prominent Congolese human-rights activists consider minerals to be at the heart of the perpetration of atrocities.
They appear to see not atrocities but adventure, not gore but glory.
The world still does not know the extent of the atrocities committed in Sinjar.
Obama Went to War to Save Them, But They Can’t Get U.S. VisasChristine van den Toorn, Sherizaan Minwalla
September 28, 2014
We are going to defend the Syrian people both from the atrocities of the Assad regime and from the atrocities of ISIS.
Syrian Rebels: We’ll Use U.S. Weapons to Fight Assad, Whether Obama Likes It or NotJosh Rogin
September 12, 2014
Atrocities of a quite grizzly sort were part and parcel of many of his “engagements.”
Historical Examples
The English nation have never forgiven Mary for these atrocities.
Queen ElizabethJacob Abbott
What a manly bold letter that was of his about the Negro atrocities.
It is often difficult to find any motive for their atrocities.
Ferdinand De Soto, The Discoverer of the MississippiJohn S. C. Abbott
Ireland and Scotland, likewise, have each been made the theatre of her atrocities.
Fox's Book of MartyrsJohn Foxe
We are weary of recounting these atrocities, as others must be of reading them.
Fox's Book of MartyrsJohn Foxe
atrocity
- behaviour or an action that is wicked or ruthless
- the fact or quality of being atrocious
- (usually plural) acts of extreme cruelty, esp against prisoners or civilians in wartime
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Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
© William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
Word Origin and History for atrocities
atrocity
n.
1530s, from Middle French atrocité or directly from Latin atrocitatem (nominative atrocitas) "cruelty, fierceness, harshness," noun of quality from atrox "fierce, cruel, frightful," from PIE *atro-ek-, from root *ater- "fire" (see atrium) + *okw- "see" (see eye (n.)); thus "of fiery or threatening appearance." The meaning "an atrocious deed" is from 1793.
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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper