MURDEROUSNESS Synonyms: 63 Similar and Opposite Words

murderousness

noun

Definition of murderousness

as in bloodthirstiness

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Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

Recent Examples of murderousness The guy was a sleaze, but there’s a pretty big gap between sleaziness and murderousness. — Sophie Brookover, Vulture, 12 Dec. 2025

Recent Examples of Synonyms for murderousness

Noun

The findings can’t be extrapolated to the real world — the scenarios were extreme, with the regimes often facing first strikes or annihilation — but revealed AIs’ skill at strategic reasoning, as well as a certain bloodthirstiness.

— Tom Chivers, semafor.com, 4 Mar. 2026

Definition of bloodthirstiness

Noun

Ted Gualtier, owner of Happy Tail Happy Dog, LLC, has been charged by Denver authorities with one count of cruelty to animals.

— Brian Maass, CBS News, 7 Oct. 2026
Many abolitionists and Quakers – who fought to ban slavery – initially supported the colonization society’s removal efforts as a means for helping Black residents escape the cruelty of American laws, especially the Fugitive Slave Acts.

— Karen Masterson, The Conversation, 5 Oct. 2026

Definition of cruelty

Noun

Wolf succumbs to Shura, a demonic force in the game’s mythology that possesses those who give in to bloodlust.

— Aman Kumar, Encyclopedia Britannica, 27 Aug. 2026
These concrete monuments to American malice have been built to satisfy a xenophobic bloodlust fueled by this administration and the worst of us in society who support or ignore it.

— Nick Bhasin, Mercury News, 28 July 2026

Definition of bloodlust

Noun

As attendees, including Ariana DeBose and Patricia Clarkson, tucked into sweet Forelle pears and a main course of Branzino, the atmosphere was decidedly more serene than the savagery witnessed earlier on stage.

— Christopher Barnard, Vogue, 23 Sep. 2026
Others are inclined to rank evils according to the amount of savagery evident in the perpetrator, not to the damage inflicted on the world.

— Literary Hub, Literary Hub, 18 Sep. 2026

Definition of savagery

Noun

What wasn’t new was the continuation of the kind of barbarity that dominated conflicts of recent memory, from Cambodia to Rwanda.

— David Friend, Vanity Fair, 10 Sep. 2026
The report comes as the RSF lays siege to El Obeid, where analysts say similar barbarity is imminent.

— Jeronimo Gonzalez, semafor.com, 9 July 2026

Definition of barbarity

Noun

School Girls; Or, The African Mean Girls Play, might well come closest in approach to Kimberly Belflower’s urgent John Proctor Is The Villain in its insistence that homeroom sadism doesn’t just spring from hormones or reindeer game competition.

— Greg Evans, Deadline, 28 Sep. 2026
Lagioia’s book goes into disturbing detail about what came next; suffice it to say that Luca’s murder tested the bounds of sadism.

— Jay Weissberg, Variety, 4 Sep. 2026

Definition of sadism

Noun

These young graduates start out naive about the heartlessness of the corporate world and harbor illusory hopes for success in unforgiving professions.

— George Packer, The Atlantic, 16 Mar. 2026
The lives of the two children in the story, aged fourteen and four, are portrayed as being as fleeting as the fireflies, and the story is an unsentimental and unflinching account with moments of both tenderness and heartlessness.

— Ginny Tapley Takemori September 4, Literary Hub, 4 Sep. 2025

Definition of heartlessness

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murderous

murderousness

murders

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“Murderousness.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/murderousness. Accessed 9 Oct. 2026.

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Synonyms of murderousness

noun

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