atrocity
/əˈtɹɑsɪti/
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 3.03 in modern English
13
Scrabble Score
8
Letters
4
Syllables
7
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
The quality or state of being atrocious; enormous wickedness; extreme criminality or cruelty.
Uncountable
Example Sentences
- "to carry out / commit / perpetrate an atrocity"
- "The regime is guilty of mass atrocities including forced displacement and the use of chemical weapons."
- "[…] it seemed an atrocity or cruelty to Narses a good General, to take punishment of innoxious Hostages:"
- "It was impossible for the convention to suffer the crimes they had committed, and the still greater atrocities which they had meditated, to pass unnoticed."
- "This devilish outrage, this fiendish murder, produced, as it was well calculated to do, a tremendous sensation. […] The atrocity roused my old master, and he spoke out, in reprobation of it;"
- "“Any delay in arresting the assassin,” I observed, “might give him time to perpetrate some fresh atrocity.”"
Etymology
From Middle French atrocité, from Latin atrōcitās, from atrōx (“terrible, cruel”) + -tās, from āter (“matte black”).
Origin
Word Breakdown
- Root: atrocité, atrōcitās
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /əˈtɹɑsɪti/
- British English: /əˈtɹɒsɪti/