noun
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behaviour or an action that is wicked or ruthless
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the fact or quality of being atrocious
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(usually plural) acts of extreme cruelty, esp against prisoners or civilians in wartime
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of atrocity
1525–35; < Latin atrōcitās, equivalent to atrōci- (stem of atrōx ) fierce + -tās -ty 2
Explanation
Atrocities, acts of outrageous cruelty, are often committed during wars and armed conflicts. The word atrocity describes both the act of cruelty as well as the sense of cruelty. If you go to visit a poorly run prison, you might be overwhelmed by the atrocity of the place when you see that no one is treated with respect, and torture is rampant. The word atrocity is also often used in the context of warfare and frequently as a plural. There were numerous atrocities on both sides, as the war raged on and the fighters’ capacity for cruelty seemed to increase.
Vocabulary lists containing atrocity
The Things They Carried
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The Hate U Give
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This Week in Words : December 23 - 29, 2017
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
He also said then that the "appalling atrocity of slavery" stains Britain's history.
From Barron's ● Oct. 2, 2026
Were my parents trying to spare me, as a young child, from learning about human atrocity, or was the Holocaust, and the damage it had done to our family, too difficult for them to confront?
From Slate ● Sep. 11, 2026
Jurors would have to find there was extreme atrocity or extreme cruelty or both to convict Clancy of this, and it would mean the prosecution had proven there were no mitigating factors.
From BBC ● Aug. 31, 2026
In its nearly 25 years of existence, the ICC has secured only six final convictions for atrocity crimes after appeals.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 23, 2026
A furious Peeta hammers Flaymitch with the atrocity he could become party to, but I can feel Haymitch watching me.
From "Mockingjay" by Suzanne Collins
Pillay, a former United Nations high commissioner for human rights, received the prize Friday for her decades of work advancing international law and accountability for atrocities.
From Salon ● Oct. 10, 2026
It’s a casual surveilling of placidity just up the coast from the atrocities we hear about.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 9, 2026
Since the 1990s, many towns in countries across Europe, including in Germany and Austria, have embedded small brass plaques in the streets in memory of Jews and other victims of Nazi atrocities.
From BBC ● Sep. 26, 2026
He drew parallels with the horrors of the Holocaust, noting that images of Nazi concentration camps only became public after the atrocities.
From Barron's ● Sep. 8, 2026
It’s hard to know how many Hitler Youth were aware of the atrocities being committed in the concentration camps.
From "Hitler Youth: Growing Up in Hitler's Shadow" by Susan Campbell Bartoletti
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Get a wordDefinitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
