barbarity
Americannoun
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brutal or inhuman conduct; cruelty.
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an act or instance of cruelty or inhumanity.
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crudity of style, taste, expression, etc.
noun
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the state or condition of being barbaric or barbarous
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a brutal or vicious act
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a crude or unsophisticated quality, style, expression, etc
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of barbarity
Explanation
Barbarity is a vicious kind of cruelty. Deliberately inflicting terrible pain and suffering on other people is barbarity. While true barbarity reaches the level of torture, this noun is also used as an exaggerated way to say "an absence of civility or culture." Feet on the table at dinner? That's utter barbarity! Leaving your trash on the ground after a picnic? Total barbarity! "Want of civilization" is actually the original definition of barbarity — "savage cruelty" came about a hundred years later, in the 1680s.
Vocabulary lists containing barbarity
Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass
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"Anne Frank: The Book, The Life, The Afterlife," Vocabulary from the literary criticism
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"The Iliad" by Homer, Book 22
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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.
GTA III in 2001 was a naughty revelation—a first-person, three-dimensional, open world of beauty and barbarity.
From Barron's • May 21, 2026
The sheer barbarity of these scenes may explain why they haven’t garnered more attention.
From Los Angeles Times • Apr. 29, 2024
Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer said President Vladimir Putin's "cowardice and barbarity" would not prevail.
From BBC • Feb. 23, 2024
He isn’t merely tormented by the barbarity of vampirism, which he refuses to indulge as far as that goes.
From Salon • Nov. 13, 2022
We shall then agitate anew, and endeavor, through public meetings and the press, to exhibit the barbarity of refusing their humble request.
From Dealings with the Dead, Volume I (of 2) by School, A Sexton of the Old
Definitions 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.
