barbarous
Americanadjective
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uncivilized; wild; savage; crude.
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savagely cruel or harsh.
The prisoners of war were given barbarous treatment.
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full of harsh sounds; noisy; discordant.
an evening of wild and barbarous music.
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not conforming to classical standards or accepted usage, as language.
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foreign; alien.
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(among ancient Greeks) designating a person or thing of non-Greek origin.
adjective
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uncivilized; primitive
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brutal or cruel
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lacking refinement
Related Words
See barbarian.
Other Word Forms
- barbarously adverb
- barbarousness noun
- hyperbarbarous adjective
- hyperbarbarously adverb
- hyperbarbarousness noun
- nonbarbarous adjective
- nonbarbarously adverb
- nonbarbarousness noun
- prebarbarous adjective
- prebarbarously adverb
- prebarbarousness noun
- unbarbarous adjective
- unbarbarously adverb
- unbarbarousness noun
Etymology
Origin of barbarous
1400–50; late Middle English < Latin barbarus < Greek bárbaros non-Greek, foreign, barbarian; akin to Sanskrit barbara stammering, non-Aryan; -ous
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.
Everyone was looking at the culprit, the younger staff in shock, his peers with shades of anger, Saron faintly smiling, barbarous with his own power.
Jay stayed for three-and-a-half years, working for a man he later described as "barbarous" but insisting he managed to shield himself from lasting damage.
From BBC
"I will fight this barbarous and inhumane practice - just the thought of it makes me sick."
From BBC
Al-Qaeda, broken for a while by an alliance between the Americans and Sunni tribes, regenerated into the even more barbarous IS.
From BBC
He cited Philippine national hero Jose Rizal’s description of justice “as the foremost virtue of the civilizing races. It subdues the barbarous nations while injustice arouses the weakest.”
From Seattle Times
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.
