atrocity
Origin of atrocity
Related Words for atrocity
horror, barbarity, brutality, inhumanity, evil, crime, enormity, wickedness, nefariousness, savagery, infamy, iniquity, abomination, monstrosity, wrong, offense, outrage, monstrousnessExamples from the Web for atrocity
Contemporary Examples of atrocity
In this other video, 29-year-old Crawford is not committing an atrocity such as might be expected of ISIS.
Fueled by atrocity and a blitzkrieg of gains in Iraq and Syria, the Islamic State has enjoyed a meteoric climb to notoriety.
But thankfully, spurred in large part by social media, the world is finally addressing this atrocity.
Suffice it to say, eight years after the Halimi atrocity, the case still inflames opinion.
Whittam told the jury that any attempts to justify the atrocity were irrelevant.
Historical Examples of atrocity
And then I thought how wicked I might have been,—a monster of crime and atrocity.
A Day's RideCharles James Lever
The enemy, he said, meant by this atrocity to frighten our sailors away from the sea.
Notes on Life and LettersJoseph Conrad
Doctor Crosson mopped his brow at the atrocity of his thoughts this morning.
In a Little TownRupert Hughes
The folly of such a government corrects and tempers its atrocity.
Napoleon the LittleVictor Hugo
It was not content with atrocity, it must needs add cynicism.
Napoleon the LittleVictor Hugo
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
Word Origin and History for atrocity
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.