cruelty

American  

[kroo-uhl-tee] / ˈkru əl ti /

noun

• cruelties
  plural

1. the state or quality of being cruel.

   Synonyms:

   atrocity, inhumanity, barbarity, ruthlessness, brutality, harshness

2. cruel disposition or conduct.

   Antonyms:

   kindness

3. a cruel act.

   Antonyms:

   kindness

4. Law. conduct by a spouse that causes grievous bodily harm or mental suffering.

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cruelty British  

/ ˈkruːəltɪ /

noun

1. deliberate infliction of pain or suffering

2. the quality or characteristic of being cruel

3. a cruel action

4. law conduct that causes danger to life or limb or a threat to bodily or mental health, on proof of which a decree of divorce may be granted

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Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• self-cruelty
  noun
• anticruelty
  adjective

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• cruelties
  plural

Etymology

Origin of cruelty

1175–1225; Middle English cruelte < Anglo-French, Old French < Latin crūdēlitāt- (stem of crūdēlitās ). See cruel, -ity

Explanation

Cruelty is a characteristic of deliberately causing someone pain. Years of cruelty by their leaders can cause citizens to rise up together and revolt. Keeping a dog tied up outside all day and all night is animal cruelty, while kids' endless bullying of a classmate is another kind of cruelty. In both examples, people act in a coldhearted way that causes another being to feel terrible. The Latin root of cruelty is crudelis, "rude, unfeeling, or hard-hearted," which is related to crudus, "rough, raw, or bloody," the root of crude.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

cruelty cruelties

She has acknowledged the influence of Dickens’s “outrage, inventiveness and empathy,” and her sprawling books—larger-than-life, tragedy prone and sometimes ponderously socially conscious—depict systemic cruelty and heroic resilience.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 28, 2026

“Animal cruelty is unacceptable, and when animals are held for unnecessary periods, this puts a roadblock to their recovery,” said Assemblymember Haney in a statement provided by Social Compassion in Legislation.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 26, 2026

If each conspiracy theory evolved from a dark mind, if human cruelty were the driving force behind all of this, there would be little hope for us.

From Slate ● Sep. 22, 2026

In his poem “Walking Away,” from which I quoted above, Lewis captures the cruelty and beauty of this moment.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 7, 2026

But for his color—that extraordinary blue—there was nothing extraordinary about him besides the cruelty in his face.

From "Strange the Dreamer" by Laini Taylor

Amid these cruelties, the conduct of Mr. McConnell and his staff are worthy of emulation.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 1, 2026

But those cuts are less likely to matter to the polemicists who will not experience the institutionalized cruelties firsthand.

From Salon ● Nov. 4, 2024

But he also pointed to the cruelties of man.

From BBC ● May 13, 2024

Hedrick and Jerome, as homosexuals determined to flourish in a narrowly heteronormative culture, knew the myriad social controls and cruelties, casual and otherwise, that strangle daily life.

From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 1, 2023

Did this mean if I told May about T. Ray’s mounds of grits, his dozens of small cruelties, about my killing my mother—that hearing it, she would feel everything I did?

From "The Secret Life of Bees" by Sue Monk Kidd

Related Words

• barbarism
• barbarity
• inhumanity
• malice
• persecution
• savagery
• torture