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
Synonym Usage
See barbarian.
Other Word Forms
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barbarouslyadverb
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barbarousnessnoun
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hyperbarbarousadjective
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hyperbarbarouslyadverb
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hyperbarbarousnessnoun
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nonbarbarousadjective
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nonbarbarouslyadverb
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nonbarbarousnessnoun
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prebarbarousadjective
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prebarbarouslyadverb
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prebarbarousnessnoun
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unbarbarousadjective
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unbarbarouslyadverb
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unbarbarousnessnoun
Etymology
Origin of barbarous
1400–50; late Middle English < Latin barbarus < Greek bárbaros non-Greek, foreign, barbarian; akin to Sanskrit barbara stammering, non-Aryan; see -ous
Explanation
To be barbarous is to be vicious and cruel or simply uncivilized. Wearing a leopard-pelt skirt and swatting at people with a wooden club is barbarous, and so is eating spaghetti with your hands. Barbarous can describe a terrible, savage act, like mass murder or torture, but it can also describe people who are uncultured. It sounds better if you say it in a British accent. If a tribe of people who knew nothing about the modern world were discovered, they would be considered barbarous. To many, living without electricity seems barbarous. Barbarous is the opposite of refined and cultured.
Vocabulary lists containing barbarous
"The Most Dangerous Game" by Richard Connell
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Declaration of the Rights of Woman (1791)
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Negative Words to Describe a Person
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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.
In his 90s, he completed a trilogy on the colonial population with “The Barbarous Years.”
From Seattle Times • Aug. 7, 2020
“The problem was to love people, try to serve them, without wanting anything from them,” he concluded in “The Barbarous Coast.”
From Seattle Times • Jul. 27, 2016
Barbarous customs that I hope will disappear when there are no Kings and no desire for conquest and when man has the world for his country and all his fellow-beings for brothers.
From Time Magazine Archive
Madge, with a retentive memory of the way Miss "Barbarous" had greeted her back in the mountains, stepped toward that much-astonished maiden, opened her red parasol straight in her face, and courtesied to the rest.
From In Old Kentucky by Marshall, Edward
This last part—the Barbarous part—is a continual breach of confidence.
From We Girls: a Home Story by Whitney, A. D. T. (Adeline Dutton Train)
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.
