Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- adj. Extremely ruthless or cruel.
- adj. Crude or unfeeling in manner or speech.
- adj. Harsh; unrelenting: a brutal winter in the Arctic.
- adj. Disagreeably precise or penetrating: spoke with brutal honesty.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- Pertaining to or resembling a brute; brutish: as, brutal nature; “brutal kind,”
- Hence—2. Savage; cruel; inhuman; unfeeling: as, brutal passions; brutal manners.
- Rude; harsh; coarse; crude.
- =Syn.2. Brutish, Beastly, etc. (see brute); unfeeling, ruthless, rude, rough, gross, merciless, barbarous.
Wiktionary
- adj. Savagely violent, vicious, ruthless, or cruel
- adj. Crude or unfeeling in manner or speech.
- adj. Harsh; unrelenting
- adj. Disagreeably precise or penetrating
- adj. music, figuratively In extreme metal, to describe the speed of the music and the density of riffs.
GNU Webster's 1913
- adj. Of or pertaining to a brute.
- adj. Like a brute; savage; cruel; inhuman; brutish; unfeeling; merciless; gross.
WordNet 3.0
- adj. disagreeably direct and precise
- adj. harsh.
- adj. (of persons or their actions) able or disposed to inflict pain or suffering
- adj. resembling a beast; showing lack of human sensibility
Etymologies
- From Medieval Latin brutalis ("savage, stupid"), from brūtus ("dull, stupid"). (Wiktionary)
Examples
“Clinton said last week in Rome world powers must show the Syrian government that there are consequences for what she called a "brutal crackdown" on civilians.”
Voice of America: US Says Syrian Repression Only Spurs More Unrest
“U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton says world powers must show the Syrian government that there are consequences for what she called a "brutal crackdown" on civilians.”
Voice of America: Clinton Urges World Reaction to Syria's 'Brutal' Crackdown
“Organisers have called for a general strike in Oakland one day next week over what they called the "brutal and vicious" treatment of protesters there.”
The Guardian: Oakland mayor sorry for clash that injured Scott Olsen
“When you use the word "brutal" to describe an extra 15 minutes of commuting time, what word is left to adequately describe the repeated violent rape of a 15 year old that leaves her unable to walk and unable to bear children?”
The Huffington Post: Lamar Vest: She's My Sister: Bringing Scripture Based Healing To Rape Survivors
“And the leaders here are expressing both outrage and shock at what they call the brutal murder of two of their finest.”
“Mr. Bush speaking just outside the White House, he said there was no justification for what he called the brutal execution of a civilian Mr. Bush said was in Iraq trying to help it on its way to freedom and democracy.”
“The committee found that Mamasela was alone in his evidence that all Vlakplaas group members and a members of Security Police were involved in what he described as a brutal torture and murder of the deceased after they were abducted.”
“Q Just to follow up on that, Chirac said this morning in London that France is opposed to what they call brutal methods, in particular the use of force and sanctions.”
“SARAJEVO - The U.N. said all three combatants in the Bosnian war were operating prison camps and published details of what it called brutal and degrading conditions in camps where Bosnian”
“Boynton on hand to warn him with what he termed brutal bluntness that he was tempting Providence again.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘brutal’.
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macabre
words associated with the macabre & horror.
( open list, randomness )
more:
http://www.wordnik.co...ghastly, grisly, culeus, silly, gruesome, horrid, morbid, angelic, shocking, hideous, ghoulish, frightful and 136 more...
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Words sung by: Belle and Sebastian
beguiling, herbaceous, peninsula, suffragette, damascan, hastening, berserk, overtime, leccy, bestow, swathe, arab strap and 193 more...
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Favorites
disparage, partisan, cupidity, hokum, tussle, odious, dastardly, overture, plane, chronic, peering, peer and 328 more...
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the first list
an immense, grandiloquent list that loads like a thousand years sentence in stone. new words are in the other lists.
ridiculous, brummagem, predicament, sanctimonious, vapid, eschew, admonish, auspicious, capitulation, enumerate, lachrymose, tenet and 1648 more...
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Twitter favourites
The new favourite words of people on Twitter.
A script searches Twitter for "X is my new favourite word" and adds it to this list.
See also:
bumwank, calamity, recalcitrant, gayenese, jeeze, nonsense, flabbergasted, juxtapose, procrastinating, ossanity, biffing, loser and 1972 more... -
eggplantia5's Words
scintillate, marvel, cranberry, oscillate, triumph, bamboozle, grimace, magical, book, hexagon, cipher, compendium and 2727 more...
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The Sog Collection
My big word list.
chaos, flaccid, empirical, flotsam, cacophony, grumble, assuage, awe, romance, mortality, coalesce, fortuitous and 3282 more...
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fifi
verbs Adj Adv noun
indulge, convene, solve, dissolve, prospect, prospective, allege, resolve, accountable, administration, amid, agenda and 407 more...
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parody's Words
defenestrate, behemoth, floss, macchiato, glom, emu, alpaca, crocheted, ampersand, charade, conflate, salacious and 193 more...
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GRE AWA
escalating, vehement, vehemence, hostility, paparazzi, regime, irrespective, scoop, exaggerated, overblown, unfetter, scrupulous and 272 more...
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Coruscatingly what?
List of adjectival terms, from aggressive to zippered, paired in printed materials with the adverb coruscatingly, identified by a simple query to Google Search (Books).
...propaedeutic...aggressive, angry, articulate, astringent, aware, beautiful, big, blinding, bright, brilliant, brutal, cerebral and 93 more...
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Basic English Vocabulary
Very basic words for ESL students.
contemplate, container, consumer, consultant, consensus, conscious, conscience, connection, confusion, confront, conflict, confident and 4334 more...
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Misc. Words.
Words I like to use, words I like but may forget.
corrosion, astonish, solace, ferment, continuum, kinesthetic, permeate, repose, caprice, cardinal, discourse, surrender and 610 more...
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The History of Cool
Words that mean "cool" around the world and through the ages.
cool, awesome, wild, stylin', groovy, neat, nifty, swell, great, tubular, radical, bitchin' and 188 more...
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Gotim
Aries, fire, chaos, destruction, Mars, aggression, bold, competetive, conflict, raw, black, red and 165 more...
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my dictionary
able, abnormally, abroad, absent, abstract, acceptable, acceptance, access, accessible, accession, according to, account and 4551 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for brutal.
Prolagus In the mud, on your knees
Trying hard not to please
Anyone, all the time
Being a rebel's fine
But you go all the way to being brutal.
(Lazy line painter Jane, by Belle and Sebastian) Nov 13, 2008
parody Can also mean awesome in a dark way. Dec 30, 2006
fearraigh In Ireland (especially Dublin), also a synonym for 'terrible' or 'awful'. Dec 13, 2006