savagery
Americannoun
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an uncivilized or barbaric state or condition; barbarity.
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savage action, nature, disposition, or behavior.
noun
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an uncivilized condition
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a savage act or nature
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savages collectively
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of savagery
Explanation
Savagery is fierce or brutal violence. The savagery of boxing is just too much for me — I prefer sports like rowing and badminton. When you think of savagery, extreme physical violence probably comes to mind. The savagery of war, brutal crackdowns by totalitarian governments, and vicious attacks are all good examples. There's also a figurative kind of savagery: "The restaurant critic's savagery felt like a personal attack on the chef." Savagery has a Latin source meaning "wild" or "of the woods," from a root that means "forest."
Vocabulary lists containing savagery
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:
As Simon Elliott describes in his biography “The African Emperor,” Severus was a mercurial and contradictory character, capable by turns of savagery, cunning, wit and generosity, and always blessed with a sense of the theatrical.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 19, 2026
Della Cruz’s stirring Ninoy standing tall against the patriarchal savagery of Renfro’s Ferdinand and the petty vindictiveness of Acasio’s well-drawn Imelda is a powerful call to action.
From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 20, 2026
It was hard to look at the savagery of, for example, Selma—as most Americans did, in photographs and on television—and not see what was wrong.
From Slate ● May 19, 2025
That savagery had already reared up in social media spaces before the pandemic fertilized it, but knowing it was already present doesn’t lessen the shock of experiencing versions of it in face-to-face interactions.
From Salon ● Mar. 26, 2025
Running with an unusual gait in which one foreleg jabbed out as he swung it forward, Hard Tack channeled savagery into velocity, whipping top horses in stakes races—the highest level of racing—and breaking speed records.
From "Seabiscuit: An American Legend" by Laura Hillenbrand
“Their professional dominance came in part from their command of the intimate daily savageries of the slave trade,” Rothman writes.
From Slate ● Apr. 19, 2021
Far beyond Syria, as well, many millions of people bear indelible memories of the conflict’s multifarious savageries, thanks to the numbing barrage of videos that have been posted on Facebook and Twitter and YouTube.
From The New Yorker ● Jan. 3, 2017
She even endured the Dantean savageries of Filene's basement on a Saturday morning.
From Time Magazine Archive
Eventually he old brutal arrangement was superseded by the laws of the tate, which undertook to end the freelance savageries of personal revenge by meting out justice uncomplicated by private passion.
From Time Magazine Archive
He saw the monk, the Princess, and the lion making its furious circuit—saw them and retreated, but a moment after reappeared, attired in the savageries which were his delight.
From The Prince of India — Volume 02 by Wallace, Lewis
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.
