cruelty
English · Thesaurus
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cruelty
- /ˈkɹuː(.ə)lti/ UK
- [ˈkɹʉwltɪj] British, Southern, Standard
- [ˈkɹʊwltɪj] British, Southern, Standard
- /ˈkɹu(.ə)lti/ US
Where it comes from
From Middle English cruelte, from Old French crualté (French cruauté), from Latin crudelitas. By surface analysis, cruel + -ty.
noun cruelties · cruellty · cruelltie
-
An indifference to suffering or pleasure in inflicting suffering.
Fear of their cargo bred a savage cruelty into the crew. One captain, to strike terror into the rest, killed a slave and dividing heart, liver and entrails into 300 pieces made each of the slaves eat one, threatening those who refused with the same torture. Such incidents were not rare.
Similar: mercilessness, barbarism, ruthlessness · Opposite: mercy, clemency
- A cruel act. The Begums' ministers, on the contrary, to extort from them the disclosure of the place which concealed the treasures, were, […] after being fettered and imprisoned, led out on to a scaffold, and this array of terrours proving unavailing, the meek tempered Middleton, as a dernier resort, menaced the
Thesaurus
Closest in meaning: cruelness, pitilessness, ruthlessness, mercilessness, harshness, inhuman treatment, cruel, callous, meanness, atrocity, cruelly, ruthless, inhumanity, evil, ill-treatment, wickedness
Translations
Every language
noun indifference to suffering
| Español | crueldad |
|---|---|
| 한국어 | 잔학 janhak |
| 日本語 | 残酷さ zankoku-sa |
| 中文 | 殘忍 /残忍 cánrěn |
| हिन्दी | क्रूरता krūrtā, निर्दयता nirdaytā, बर्बरता barbartā |
| Português | crueldade |
| Français | cruauté |
| Deutsch | Grausamkeit |
| Italiano | crudeltà |
| Română | cruzime |
| Русский | жесто́кость žestókostʹ, безжа́лостность bezžálostnostʹ, бессерде́чность besserdéčnostʹ, свире́пость svirépostʹ |
| العربية | قَسْوَة qaswa, وَحْشِيَّة waḥšiyya |
noun positive pleasure in inflicting suffering
| Español | crueldad |
|---|---|
| हिन्दी | क्रूरता krūrtā, निर्ममता nirmamtā |
| Português | perversidade |
| Français | cruauté |
| Deutsch | Grausamkeit |
| Italiano | crudeltà |
| Română | cruzime |
| Русский | жесто́кость žestókostʹ |
| עברית | אכזריות akhzariut |
noun cruel act
| Español | crueldad |
|---|---|
| हिन्दी | क्रूरता krūrtā |
| Português | crueldade |
| Deutsch | Grausamkeit, Quälerei |
| Italiano | crudeltà |
| Română | cruzime |
| Русский | жесто́кость žestókostʹ |
Talk about this word "cruelty." Wiktionary, via Micwyn, micwyn.com/word/cruelty. Accessed 6 Nov. 2026. cruelty. (n.d.). In Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Retrieved November 6, 2026, from https://micwyn.com/word/cruelty "cruelty." Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Accessed November 6, 2026. https://micwyn.com/word/cruelty.Cite this
@misc{cruelty_2026,
title = {cruelty},
howpublished = {Wiktionary, via Micwyn},
year = {2026},
url = {https://micwyn.com/word/cruelty},
urldate = {2026-11-06}
}
