ferocity

American  

[fuh-ros-i-tee] / fəˈrɒs ɪ ti /

noun

• ferocities
  plural

1. 

   a ferocious quality or state; savage fierceness.

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Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• nonferocity
  noun

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• ferocities
  plural

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Etymology

Origin of ferocity

1600–10; < Latin ferōcitās, equivalent to ferōc-, stem of ferōx ferocious + -itās -ity

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Explanation

Ferocity is the state of being ferocious — wild, scary, and fierce. A five year-old girl pretending to be a lion will display her ferocity by roaring and baring her teeth. Things known for their ferocity include wild animals, terrifying thunder storms, and fierce battlefield fights. A furious argument can have an element of ferocity, and so can a wild, loud piece of music. The Latin word ferus, which means "wild," is the root of not only ferocity, but ferocious and fierce. Ferocity came directly from the Latin ferocitatem, "fierceness, or wildness."

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

ferocity ferocities

Ms. Rodriguez’s Galloway lacks the cool ferocity and terrier-like tenacity that drive her character’s righteous insistence on seeing justice done.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 30, 2026

Despite playing with a compression sleeve on his right arm, Alcaraz unleashed his trademark forehand with familiar ferocity.

From BBC ● Aug. 31, 2026

The ferocity waxes and wanes in the works that follow.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 12, 2026

And out of nowhere, Seehorn gives me a taste of Carol, growling the words, “Can you just get it?” with such ferocity that I’m almost physically blown back in my chair.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 6, 2026

They exploded onto the deck with such ferocity and color that for a moment even Luke was stunned.

From "The Sea of Monsters" by Rick Riordan

Pieces by Ravel and Pablo de Sarasate shone as they should, and the evening’s unlikely centerpiece, Ginastera’s Violin Concerto, was a 30-minute fever dream of serialist fancies and ferocities.

From New York Times ● Apr. 28, 2024

Whitman relished these energies; these ferocities in our beings. 

From Slate ● Jan. 9, 2015

No grim study of jungle ferocities and hardships.

From Time Magazine Archive

Indeed, in this play of gloomy wedlock and ill-starred infidelities, he preaches a sad sermon with his quips and makes Margaret Lawrence, who usually seems bearable if not entrancing, a monstrous brute of conjugal ferocities.

From Time Magazine Archive

Robespierre identified his "Supreme Being" with nature, of whose ferocities the poor Girondins soon had tragical evidence.*

From The Life Of Thomas Paine, Vol. II. (of II) With A History of His Literary, Political and Religious Career in America France, and England by Moncure Daniel Conway

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