savagery
Americannoun
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savageries
plural
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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:
Ursula von der Leyen, the president of the European Commission, said: "The unspeakable savagery and terror of 7 October must never happen again."
From BBC ● Oct. 7, 2026
In “The Road,” Cormac McCarthy depicts a postapocalyptic world with the savagery and tangled lyricism he earlier brought to blood-dimmed novels about the Western borderlands.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 19, 2026
Only Valerie and those who get an intimate look can see the casual savagery in Warhol’s practice.
From Salon ● Apr. 29, 2026
Zach Cregger’s viral horror hit winds its way methodically to a climax of such hilarious savagery that you’ll scare yourself with how hard you’re laughing.
From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 18, 2025
It seemed merely to be dull complacency, beside the savagery and feral wit of the Piet.
From "The Once and Future King" by T. H. White
“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
A good thing too, says Goffman, for "without such mercies, unsatisfactory persons would bleed to death from the conversational savageries performed on them."
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 had in him the making of a great soldier, though his exploits are lost in the dreary darkness of intestine French and Irish savageries.
From Sir Walter Ralegh A Biography by W. (William) Stebbing
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Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
