Synonyms for cruel
- adjective
Synonyms by meaning
Adjective
1. Brutal — harsh; severe
brutal, savage, heartless, barbarous, harsh, unkind, merciless, vicious, pitiless, ruthless, unmerciful, remorseless, callous, severe, hard, unfeeling, truculent, fell, murderous, brutish, diabolical, draconian
2. Inhuman — intentionally causing or reveling in pain and suffering; merciless, heartless
inhuman, sadistic, spiteful, nasty, bowelless dated, unpitiful dated
Other
Definitions
- adj. 1
Intentionally causing or reveling in pain and suffering; merciless, heartless.
The supervisor was very cruel to Josh, as he would always give Josh the hardest, most degrading work he could find.
- adj. 2
Harsh; severe.
We're certainly having quite a cruel winter this year.
Example sentences
- brutal The city was ruined by the brutal force of nature.
- savage There are still some savage tribes on that island.
- heartless We're all handicapped and heartless in own ways.
- barbarous The slaughter of the prisoners was a barbarous act.
- inhuman At least I'm not starting to praise inhuman practices.
- sadistic My boyfriend turned out to be a bit sadistic in bed.
By length
- 4 letters
- hard1, fell1
- 5 letters
- nasty2, harsh1
- 6 letters
- severe2, brutal2, savage2, unkind2
- 7 letters
- vicious2, inhuman3, callous2, brutish2
- 8 letters
- ruthless2, sadistic3, spiteful2, pitiless3
- 9 letters
- murderous3, heartless2, merciless3, draconian4, barbarous3, unfeeling3, truculent3, bowelless, unpitiful
- 10 letters
- diabolical5, unmerciful4
- 11 letters
- remorseless3
The small number after each word is its number of syllables (nasty2 = 2 syllables).