brute
1 Americannoun
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a nonhuman creature; beast.
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a brutal, insensitive, or crude person.
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the animal qualities, desires, etc., of humankind.
Father felt that rough games brought out the brute in us.
verb (used with object)
noun
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any animal except man; beast; lower animal
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( as modifier )
brute nature
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a brutal person
adjective
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wholly instinctive or physical (esp in the phrases brute strength, brute force )
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without reason or intelligence
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coarse and grossly sensual
Synonym Usage
See animal.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of brute1
First recorded in 1425–50; late Middle English, from Middle French, from Latin brūtus “heavy, devoid of feeling, irrational”
Origin of brute2
First recorded in 1900–05; back formation from bruting “rough hewing (of a diamond),” partial translation of French brutage literally, “a roughing,” equivalent to brut “rough, raw” + -age; see origin at brute 1, -age
Explanation
His road rage may turn your dad into a brute when he gets behind the wheel. A brute is a person who is as ferocious as a wild animal. A violent, savage person can be described as a brute, and so can a wild animal. Someone who's less monstrous but is still unpleasant can also be a brute, and it can be used as an adjective to mean, basically, "brutal." If it's more animal than human, you can call it brute, like the brute power of an invading army. The Latin brutus, "heavy, dull, or stupid," gave rise to brute, which through the 15th century only referred to animals.
Vocabulary lists containing brute
My Brother Sam is Dead
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Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea
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Lyrical Vocabulary, Volume I
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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:
And to think he still operates with such brute force that he was shoving Rocket defenders all over the court.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 22, 2026
It was not just about brute force, though, there were deft touches too.
From BBC ● Apr. 18, 2026
This strategy depends on intelligence rather than brute force.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 4, 2026
The brute financial force of all that wealth means market fluctuations, like last week’s, matter more for consumer spending.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 10, 2026
He is a hulking brute with a thick black beard.
From "Water for Elephants" by Sara Gruen
Except from behind the windshield, where he views the world as teeming with schemers and brutes, acting on all manner of Machiavellian impulses.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 1, 2025
But it made a few of the par 4s, such as the 490-yard first and the 465-yard fifth, play like brutes.
From Seattle Times ● Jan. 11, 2024
Those Black people who survived the living hell of the Middle Passage and then centuries of enslavement and brutalization were not an undifferentiated mass of brutes as conceptualized by the white popular imagination.
From Salon ● Jul. 28, 2023
His uncompromising hostility toward revolutionaries inspired Thomas Paine to remark in 1776, “Even brutes do not devour their young, nor savages make war upon their families.”
From National Geographic ● Jul. 3, 2023
Empty paint buckets, paint brushes, stepladders, stools, saucepans, frying-pans, rotten eggs, dead rats, bottles of hair-oil—anything those brutes could lay their hands on came raining down upon the peach.
From "James and the Giant Peach" by Roald Dahl
The newes of whose imprisonment was anon bruted through the realme, wherewith the Nobles fretted, and the commons curssed: finallie all men detested such tyrannie in the chancellour.
From Chronicles of England, Scotland and Ireland (2 of 6): England (6 of 12) Richard the First by Holinshed, Raphael
The newes of the taking of king Richard was anon bruted and blowne ouer all Germanie, wherevpon the emperour Henrie the sixt, the sonne of 1193.
From Chronicles of England, Scotland and Ireland (2 of 6): England (6 of 12) Richard the First by Holinshed, Raphael
The wisedome of the Duke also was wonderfully extolled and commended of all men, the fame whereof was increased and bruted throughout the Region of Italy.
From The Palace of Pleasure Volume 3 by Painter, William
The like forged inuencion haue thei wrote, of the migh- The battaill of Troie .x. yeres for a herlotte. tie and terrible battaill bruted of Troie, for a beautifull har- lot susteined ten yeres.
From A booke called the Foundacion of Rhetorike because all other partes of Rhetorike are grounded thereupon, euery parte sette forthe in an Oracion vpon questions, verie profitable to bee knowen and redde by Rainolde, Richard
Moreover ye see what opinion is like to be conceiued of you, when it shalbe bruted that for the Marquize feare, you haue maried the Mantuan Lord.
From The Palace of Pleasure Volume 3 by Painter, William
Stones of fancy shape, such as square, or cushion shape, have to be formed in part by hand rubbing or "bruting" as it is called.
From A Text-Book of Precious Stones for Jewelers and the Gem-Loving Public by Wade, Frank Bertram
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.
