barbarity
Americannoun
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barbarities
plural
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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.
See Examples For:
"The automation and digitalisation of warfare leads to its gamification. This leads to degradation and sliding back of humanity to barbarity," he said.
From BBC ● Oct. 1, 2026
"It is within our power to stop the war, to stop the barbarity, and to win rights," she said.
From Barron's ● Mar. 8, 2026
“If we cannot stand up to call it what it is — a monstrous act of barbarity — then we have lost the plot.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 24, 2023
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
The quality or state of being barbarous; barbarity; barbarism.
From Webster's Unabridged Dictionary (2nd 100 Pages) by Noah Webster
Hudson, now 24, later apologised for the posts and called them "barbarities" and "dark humour".
From BBC ● Mar. 6, 2024
"Quino built the story with very human characters through the eyes of children, who say terrible barbarities with no filter," series director Lorena Munoz told Reuters.
From Reuters ● Sep. 26, 2023
Exceptions include the veteran British graphic artist Sue Coe, who finds focus for her classic Expressionism and her lifelong sorrow and anger at human barbarities.
From The New Yorker ● Nov. 25, 2019
When we see people fighting against those barbarities, that is part and parcel of America too.
From Salon ● Nov. 3, 2019
It was evident that Spain was still ready, if in her opinion occasion required it, to have recourse to the barbarities of the old Inquisitorial days.
From Cuba Its Past, Present, and Future by Arthur D. Hall
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.
