1
as in brutal
having or showing the desire to inflict severe pain and suffering on others
a barbaric dictator who tortured his own people with no qualms
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Antonyms & Near Antonyms
2
as in barbarian
not civilized
the barbaric forebears of modern mankind
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Example Sentences
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Recent Examples of barbaric
But the experience too often triggers barbaric rage.
—
Ed Lavandera, CNN Money, 11 Oct. 2025
The origins of that industry really are self-help cults from the '70s that use these really kind of barbaric behavioral therapy modification programs.
—Senior Editor, MSNBC Newsweek, 24 Sep. 2025
To be clear, political violence is barbaric and horrifying.
—Billy Eichner, Rolling Stone, 21 Sep. 2025
Colum has this great line about barbaric tools.
—Maureen Lee Lenker, Entertainment Weekly, 20 Sep. 2025
See All Example Sentences for barbaric
Recent Examples of Synonyms for barbaric
Adjective
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Between wading or boating into choppy surf, baking in the hot sun, and getting doused in salty spray, the elements are brutal on the human body and the gear meant to withstand them.—
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Phạm Lockwood also spoke with Huan Nguyen, the sole survivor of a massacre of a South Vietnamese family in Saigon, a brutal attack allegedly orchestrated by Capt.—
Adjective
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Ashley Johnson and star/executive producer Travis Willingham tee up what's coming for their soft barbarian lady.—
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Bailey plays half-elf ranger Vex, O’Brien is her twin brother Vax, Willingham is the lovable barbarian Grog, Johnson is the holy gnome cleric Pike, Jaffe is the royal gunslinger Percy, Ray is magical half-elf druid Keyleth and Riegel is the raunchy gnome bard Scanlan.—
Adjective
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The forest had taught him that city dwellers could often be regulated by cruel and rather unpredictable codes.—
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That Maduro is a cruel dictator is clear; that Trump intends more than just his arrest (such as taking their oil) is equally clear.—
Adjective
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People at work have made rude comments pertaining to my hearing.—
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Though Jackson acknowledged that those time crunches can be stressful, being rude isn't the way to go.—
Adjective
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This league is a savage league.—
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The fifth-place finisher also reveals the inspiration for her savage jury question to Savannah.—
Adjective
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But every point matters for the Sabres, and these 2 were enough to put them in the second wild-card spot based on points percentage.—
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Those interviews can be conducted through wild-card weekend and are limited to three hours in length.—
Adjective
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Officials charged Damon Leanord of Pleasanton, Kansas, with interference with law enforcement, having a vicious dog at large and criminal desecration of a body in Linn County and abandonment of a corpse charges in Bates County, Missouri, after finding the child’s body at the bottom of a creek bed.—
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He was shocked in 2013 when he was struck by vicious bouts of vomiting.—
Adjective
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Still, a second-generation Jewish American sensibility permeated Caesar’s shows—not just in Yiddish tossed into barbarous tongues but in the pervasive mood of streetwise distrust.—
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In the northwest suburbs of Minneapolis, a man dressed as a cop shot two Democratic lawmakers and their spouses, killing the DFL speaker of the House and her husband in a barbarous (and politically motivated) atrocity.—
Cite this Entry
“Barbaric.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/barbaric. Accessed 12 Jan. 2026.
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