1
: suitable to one who lacks intelligence, sensitivity, or compassion : befitting a brute: such as
a
: cruel, cold-blooded
a brutal attack
c
: unpleasantly accurate and incisive
the brutal truth
d
: very bad or unpleasant
a brutal mistake
e
: grossly ruthless or unfeeling
a brutal slander
2
archaic
: typical of beasts : animal
thee, Serpent … to me so friendly grown above the rest of brutal kind—
John Milton
John MiltonExamples of brutal in a Sentence
Sailors sometimes faced brutal punishments like whipping.
a brutal struggle for survival in the wilderness
The writer describes the dangers of drugs with brutal honesty.
The movie is a brutal depiction of the war.
The traffic was brutal on the way to work.
I had a brutal headache this morning.
Recent Examples on the Web
When local Officer and single mother Dana Cypress is unexpectedly thrown into the center of a brutal murder mystery of her own, she’s left to make sense of the chaos amidst a town gripped by fear and confusion where everyone, alive or undead, is a suspect.
—Jordan Moreau, Variety, 12 May 2025
Bruno Silva via first-round KO This finish was absolutely brutal.
—Brian Mazique, Forbes.com, 11 May 2025
Whether that fixes the team's issues amid their brutal first month-plus of the season remains to be seen.
—Noah Camras, MSNBC Newsweek, 10 May 2025
The opera is based on a real-life tragedy, about a group of Black and brown teenagers wrongly charged and imprisoned for the brutal attack on a female jogger in New York's Central Park in 1989.
—Neda Ulaby, NPR, 10 May 2025
See All Example Sentences for brutal
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Jordan Moreau, Variety, 12 May 2025
Bruno Silva via first-round KO This finish was absolutely brutal.
—Brian Mazique, Forbes.com, 11 May 2025
Whether that fixes the team's issues amid their brutal first month-plus of the season remains to be seen.
—Noah Camras, MSNBC Newsweek, 10 May 2025
The opera is based on a real-life tragedy, about a group of Black and brown teenagers wrongly charged and imprisoned for the brutal attack on a female jogger in New York's Central Park in 1989.
—Neda Ulaby, NPR, 10 May 2025
See All Example Sentences for brutal
Cite this Entry
“Brutal.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/brutal. Accessed 18 May. 2025.
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