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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Recent Examples of barbaric
The two-and-a-half-hour film follows two Black teenagers who become wards of a barbaric juvenile reformatory in Jim Crow-era Florida.
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Anna Tingley, Variety, 28 Sep. 2024
The baseless claims have been described as racist because of the implication that Haitian immigrants, most of whom are Black, have barbaric practices or are incapable of living peacefully among white neighbors.
—David Ingram, NBC News, 10 Sep. 2024
Where The Convert does excel is in its treatment of the Maori characters, even the most barbaric of whom are afforded dimensions mostly lacking in their British counterparts.
—Frank Scheck, The Hollywood Reporter, 11 July 2024
The dehumanization of Palestinians as barbaric, primitive, or terroristic, for example, perpetuates racist tropes about not just Arabs but also about Muslims more broadly.
—Abdallah Fayyad, Vox, 5 June 2024
See all Example Sentences for barbaric 
Anna Tingley, Variety, 28 Sep. 2024
The baseless claims have been described as racist because of the implication that Haitian immigrants, most of whom are Black, have barbaric practices or are incapable of living peacefully among white neighbors.
—David Ingram, NBC News, 10 Sep. 2024
Where The Convert does excel is in its treatment of the Maori characters, even the most barbaric of whom are afforded dimensions mostly lacking in their British counterparts.
—Frank Scheck, The Hollywood Reporter, 11 July 2024
The dehumanization of Palestinians as barbaric, primitive, or terroristic, for example, perpetuates racist tropes about not just Arabs but also about Muslims more broadly.
—Abdallah Fayyad, Vox, 5 June 2024
See all Example Sentences for barbaric
Recent Examples of Synonyms for barbaric
Adjective
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The brutal Assad regime is brought to a sudden end when Syrian rebels seize Damascus following a lightning offensive.The Week UK, theweek, 25 Dec. 2024
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Yet for many others, the summer of ’65 presented a moment of reckoning: not about choosing acoustic or electric, but about responding to a brutal and unjust U.S. military escalation abroad.Nina Silber / Made by History, TIME, 25 Dec. 2024
Adjective
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Steve muses, as the clip cuts to barbarian humanoid pigs attacking a city.Greg Evans, Deadline, 19 Nov. 2024
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Yet the real struggle between red and blue bears little resemblance to the flamboyant melodrama narrated by partisans, in which each side fights to defend humanity against a barbarian horde.Andrew Cockburn, Harper's Magazine, 19 Aug. 2024
Adjective
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Some Rochester residents disagree and find their city’s methods excessively cruel to the birds.Eli Wizevich, Smithsonian Magazine, 18 Dec. 2024
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The gods prove cruel but not omnipotent, and the modern settings exert their own redemptive pull; the final effect is that of a magic trick, in which the characters manage, in each film’s miraculous closing moments, to slip the bonds of tragedy.Justin Chang, The New Yorker, 18 Dec. 2024
Adjective
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Recently, Amy's sister, Tammy Slaton, faced criticism for being rude to her in a November episode of 1,000-lb.Benedict Cosgrove, Newsweek, 20 Dec. 2024
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Eye contact, valued in some cultures as a sign of openness and candor, might be seen as rude or intrusive elsewhere.Carol Kinsey Goman, Ph.D., Forbes, 12 Dec. 2024
Adjective
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As savage Arctic cold was getting ready to surge south across North America, vivid imagery based on data from weather models showed us what was going to happen.Tom Yulsman, Discover Magazine, 27 Dec. 2022
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The 2023 grand marshal is former Arizona Democratic congresswoman Gabby Giffords, gravely wounded in a savage mass shooting in 2011 that also killed six people.Los Angeles Times, Los Angeles Times, 27 Dec. 2022
Adjective
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This is done in part by some masterful pixel-art graphics, which incorporate some wild 2D lighting effects and detailed, painterly sprite world.Ars Technica, Ars Technica, 22 Dec. 2024
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Cakes were often sweetened with homemade jams, filled with wild berries and mountain fruits.Alana Al-Hatlani, Southern Living, 22 Dec. 2024
Adjective
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But the blaze was the latest manifestation of a vicious cycle in which flammable invasive grasses are choking out fire-resistant vegetation in the Santa Monica Mountains.Sammy Roth, Los Angeles Times, 24 Dec. 2024
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The vicious gang has taken advantage of a lax southern border under the Biden-Harris administration, with many of its foot soldiers swarming the U.S. and unleashing hell on unsuspecting communities.Michael Dorgan, Fox News, 20 Dec. 2024
Adjective
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Experts told PolitiFact such narratives painting Haiti as a barbarous country are not new and are racist attempts to dehumanize Haitians.Jeff Cercone, Austin American-Statesman, 14 Sep. 2024
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Treating barbarous body horror as something embedded in us deeper than the mutual love of a partner, especially when it’s done without the theatrical or exploitation trappings, makes for one of the New French Extremity’s most troubling works.Rory Doherty, Vulture, 19 Sep. 2024
Thesaurus Entries Near barbaric
Cite this Entry
“Barbaric.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/barbaric. Accessed 31 Dec. 2024.
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