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View synonyms for atrocity

atrocity

[ uh-tros-i-tee ]

noun

, plural a·troc·i·ties.
  1. the quality or state of being atrocious.
  2. an atrocious act, thing, or circumstance.


atrocity

/ əˈtrɒsɪtɪ /

noun

  1. behaviour or an action that is wicked or ruthless
  2. the fact or quality of being atrocious
  3. usually plural acts of extreme cruelty, esp against prisoners or civilians in wartime
“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


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Word History and Origins

Origin of atrocity1

1525–35; < Latin atrōcitās, equivalent to atrōci- (stem of atrōx ) fierce + -tās -ty 2
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Example Sentences

Perhaps time has dulled us to the atrocities committed by these 17th and 18th century outlaws.

It’s rare to see television capture the many smaller moral failures nested within the atrocity of slavery, the way it forced the enslaved to make desperate choices and made monsters of its beneficiaries.

From Time

This matters, because if women are treated as less capable in one regard – even one that involves horrible atrocities – it can extend to other realms, too.

Decades later, the United Nations international tribunals that investigated atrocities committed in Rwanda and Yugoslavia in the 1990s brought, in each instance, only one woman to justice.

Some 670,000 people from Cameroon, which has a population nearly as large as Texas, have been displaced by the atrocities, and an estimated 60,000 have sought refuge next door in Nigeria.

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.

It is this mindless atrocity, driven by both avarice and animosity, that is at play in the film.

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.

The atrocity stories were all that Aunt Harriet knew of the war, and all she could think of now.

Time had marvelously softened the atrocity of the act, and heightened its picturesque character.

Beyond this, the story perhaps has little value, except as an offset to the usual anecdotes of Hessian atrocity.

But the barbarities of a licentious army were exceeded in atrocity by the cooler deliberations of the Norman parliament.

I wondered the people could suffer this last atrocity; I thought they must scream and rush to save the wretched man.

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atrocious assault and batteryà trois