Synonyms
Examples of cruel in a Sentence
Richard Brody, The New Yorker, 6 Apr. 2024
Or that the murders were heinous and cruel and premeditated, or done for any type of financial gain.
—Charles Rabin, Miami Herald, 5 Apr. 2024
Frailty is a sleeper gem that puts a Southern Gothic spin on biblical horror and the terror of a cruel and fickle God.
—Megan McCluskey, TIME, 5 Apr. 2024
Miller, who survived a 2022 lethal injection attempt, filed a lawsuit this week to block the nitrogen execution, arguing the first execution under the new method caused cruel and prolonged suffering.
—Corky Siemaszko, NBC News, 4 Apr. 2024
The Kid wants to get close to Chief Rana (Sikander Kher), a cruel police officer whose bloodied knuckles haunt his nightmares.
—Katie Walsh, Los Angeles Times, 4 Apr. 2024
To include this gratuitous ban in the emergency funding bill is cruel and shameful.
—Letters To The Editor, The Mercury News, 1 Apr. 2024
Although later Godzilla movies would rehash its ecological ideas, the film stands out for its colorful animation, psychedelic theme song (complete with a surreal nightclub sequence where patrons’ heads turn into fish), and a monster that’s among the cruelest and most destructive in the canon.
—Katie Rife, EW.com, 28 Mar. 2024
In a city like Baltimore, with its complicated and often cruel racial history, there was plenty to scrutinize.
—Debra Kamin, New York Times, 24 Mar. 2024
These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'cruel.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.
Word History
Middle English, from Anglo-French, from Latin crudelis, from crudus — see crude entry 1
14th century, in the meaning defined at sense 1
Phrases Containing cruel
Dictionary Entries Near cruel
Cite this Entry
“Cruel.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/cruel. Accessed 16 Apr. 2024.
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More from Merriam-Webster on cruel
Nglish: Translation of cruel for Spanish Speakers
Britannica English: Translation of cruel for Arabic Speakers
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