What is another word for cruel?
Synonyms for cruel
ˈkru əlcru·el
This thesaurus page includes all potential synonyms, words with the same meaning and similar terms for the word cruel.
Wiktionary
crueladjective
Synonyms:
sadistic, vicious, brutalAntonyms:
mercifulcrueladjective
Not nice; mean; heartless.
The supervisor was very cruel to Josh, as he would always give Josh the hardest, most degrading work he could find.
Synonyms:
vicious, sadistic, brutalAntonyms:
mercifulcrueladjective
Cool; awesome; neat.
Synonyms:
sadistic, brutal, viciousAntonyms:
merciful
English Synonyms and Antonyms
cruel
Whatever is not civilized is barbarian; barbaric indicates rude magnificence, uncultured richness; as, barbaric splendor, a barbaric melody. Barbarous refers to the worst side of barbarian life, and to revolting acts, especially of cruelty, such as a civilized man would not be expected to do; as, a barbarous deed. We may, however, say barbarous nations, barbarous tribes, without implying anything more than want of civilization and culture. Savage is more distinctly bloodthirsty than barbarous. In this sense we speak of a savage beast and of barbarous usage.
Synonyms:
atrocious, barbarian, barbaric, barbarous, brutal, inhuman, merciless, rude, savage, uncivilized, uncouth, untamedAntonyms:
civilized, courtly, cultured, delicate, elegant, graceful, humane, nice, polite, refined, tender, urbane
Complete Dictionary of Synonyms and Antonyms
cruel
Synonyms:
savage, barbarous, pittiless, inexorable, unrelenting, ruthless, truculent, hard-hearted, harsh, unmerciful, brutal, inhuman, maleficent, malignantAntonyms:
humane, forbearing, generous, merciful, forgiving, benevolent, beneficent
Princeton's WordNet
barbarous, brutal, cruel, fell, roughshod, savage, viciousadjective
(of persons or their actions) able or disposed to inflict pain or suffering
"a barbarous crime"; "brutal beatings"; "cruel tortures"; "Stalin's roughshod treatment of the kulaks"; "a savage slap"; "vicious kicks"
Synonyms:
wild, uncivilized, fierce, savage, deplorable, reprehensible, fell, beastly, unrelenting, venomous, criminal, brute(a), condemnable, roughshod, barbaric, evil, feral, poisonous, barbarous, vicious, furious, ferocious, barbarian, heavy-handed, brutish, bestial, brutal, ferine, uncivilisedAntonyms:
humane
Editors Contribution
lumpatious
meaning that if used properly it could mean cruel, rude, or very obnoxiously a jerk.
my mom is acting very lumpatious
Dictionary of English Synonymes
crueladjective
Synonyms:
unmerciful, inhuman, merciless, unfeeling, uncompassionate, fell, ruthless, barbarous, pitiless, relentless, unrelenting, inexorable, savage, ferocious, brutal, sanguinary, truculent, blood-thirsty, hard-heartedcrueladjective
Synonyms, Antonyms & Associated Words
crueladjective
Synonyms:
pitiless, merciless, inhuman, unmerciful, fell, relentless, ruthless, truculent, brutal, unfeeling, severe, inexorable, incompassionate, implacable
PPDB, the paraphrase database
List of paraphrases for "cruel":
brutal, harsh, callous, cruelty, ruthless, savage, heartless, vicious, barbaric, quarrelsome, atrocious, tough, merciless, unmerciful, inhumane, cold-blooded, gruesome, stone-cold, horrific
Words popularity by usage frequency
ranking | word | |
---|---|---|
#2028 | wild | |
#2384 | criminal | |
#3009 | evil | |
#4538 | fell | |
#4924 | tough | |
#9271 | brutal | |
#9792 | savage | |
#11289 | cruel | |
#11437 | harsh | |
#12199 | rude | |
#15142 | fierce | |
#15592 | malignant | |
#15992 | vicious | |
#16835 | furious | |
#18006 | cruelty | |
#24683 | poisonous | |
#26052 | horrific | |
#26085 | ruthless | |
#26177 | barbarian | |
#27959 | feral | |
#31262 | inhuman | |
#36370 | gruesome | |
#39424 | ferocious | |
#40816 | sadistic | |
#42154 | heartless | |
#43810 | barbaric | |
#48929 | merciless | |
#49169 | unrelenting | |
#50274 | atrocious | |
#50386 | inhumane | |
#51420 | venomous | |
#51788 | untamed | |
#53842 | callous | |
#54728 | bestial | |
#55032 | deplorable | |
#58505 | reprehensible | |
#66341 | barbarous | |
#70510 | beastly | |
#72930 | brutish | |
#73839 | inexorable | |
#98549 | uncouth | |
#102327 | uncivilized | |
#126547 | roughshod | |
#136732 | quarrelsome | |
#139191 | maleficent | |
#205995 | truculent | |
#222327 | unmerciful | |
#236180 | uncivilised | |
#290986 | condemnable |
How to use cruel in a sentence?
They should have a specific museum for those monuments and statues - a museum that portrays the history of slave-owners, the history of the transatlantic slave trade is very cruel, it's not a good thing. However, we have to remember what happened in the past so we don't repeat what happened.
The world we live in is just a small but cruel and effective taste of God's will and authority.
Democrats are painting Republican Senate candidates in upcoming elections and midterms as cruel and out of touch, well, apparently Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell is content to leave them out to dry and fend for themselves.
Life can be cruel, but today we are united in love to live like Lizzy.
It can take up to three days for a bird to die after ingesting it, and it's a cruel and horribly inhumane death.
Translations for cruel
From our Multilingual Translation Dictionary
- wreedaardigAfrikaans
- قاسيArabic
- жорсткіBelarusian
- жестокBulgarian
- cruelCatalan, Valencian
- krutýCzech
- creulonWelsh
- grusomDanish
- grausamGerman
- σκληρόςGreek
- kruelaEsperanto
- cruelSpanish
- julmEstonian
- ظالمPersian
- julmaFinnish
- grimmurFaroese
- cruelFrench
- wreedWestern Frisian
- cruálachIrish
- neo-iochdmhor, garg, neo-thruacanta, brùideil, mì-chneasta, borb, cruadalachScottish Gaelic
- cruelGalician
- אכזרית, אַכְזָרִיHebrew
- निर्दयी, ज़ालिमHindi
- kegyetlenHungarian
- անգութ, դաժանArmenian
- cruelInterlingua
- kejamIndonesian
- grimmur, vondurIcelandic
- crudeleItalian
- 酷い, 残酷, 惨いJapanese
- სასტიკიGeorgian
- 잔인Korean
- bêrehm, zalimKurdish
- saevus, crudelisLatin
- negailestingas, žiaurusLithuanian
- nežēlīgsLatvian
- whakawiriwiriMāori
- хэрцгийMongolian
- kejamMalay
- wrede, wreed, gemeen, gemeneDutch
- grusomNorwegian
- okrutnyPolish
- cruelPortuguese
- crunt, cumplit, crudRomanian
- жестокийRussian
- не̏човјечан, о̏крӯтан, ȍkrūtan, nȅčovečan, nȅčovječan, не̏човечанSerbo-Croatian
- krutýSlovak
- krutSlovene
- mizorAlbanian
- grymSwedish
- dhalimuSwahili
- క్రూరమైనTelugu
- ทารุณ, โหด, โหดร้ายThai
- malupitTagalog
- zalimTurkish
- achchiqUyghur, Uighur
- жорстокийUkrainian
- نردیی, ظالمUrdu
- độc ácVietnamese
- גרויזאםYiddish
Get even more translations for cruel »
Translation
Find a translation for the cruel synonym in other languages:
Select another language:
- - Select -
- 简体中文 (Chinese - Simplified)
- 繁體中文 (Chinese - Traditional)
- Español (Spanish)
- Esperanto (Esperanto)
- 日本語 (Japanese)
- Português (Portuguese)
- Deutsch (German)
- العربية (Arabic)
- Français (French)
- Русский (Russian)
- ಕನ್ನಡ (Kannada)
- 한국어 (Korean)
- עברית (Hebrew)
- Gaeilge (Irish)
- Українська (Ukrainian)
- اردو (Urdu)
- Magyar (Hungarian)
- मानक हिन्दी (Hindi)
- Indonesia (Indonesian)
- Italiano (Italian)
- தமிழ் (Tamil)
- Türkçe (Turkish)
- తెలుగు (Telugu)
- ภาษาไทย (Thai)
- Tiếng Việt (Vietnamese)
- Čeština (Czech)
- Polski (Polish)
- Bahasa Indonesia (Indonesian)
- Românește (Romanian)
- Nederlands (Dutch)
- Ελληνικά (Greek)
- Latinum (Latin)
- Svenska (Swedish)
- Dansk (Danish)
- Suomi (Finnish)
- فارسی (Persian)
- ייִדיש (Yiddish)
- հայերեն (Armenian)
- Norsk (Norwegian)
- English (English)
Citation
Use the citation below to add these synonyms to your bibliography:
Style:MLAChicagoAPA
"cruel." Synonyms.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 1 Jun 2024. <https://www.synonyms.com/synonym/cruel>.
Discuss these cruel synonyms with the community:
Report Comment
We're doing our best to make sure our content is useful, accurate and safe.
If by any chance you spot an inappropriate comment while navigating through our website please use this form to let us know, and we'll take care of it shortly.
Attachment
You need to be logged in to favorite.
Log In