Meaning & use
barbaric
Extremely cruel, brutal, or uncivilized, especially in a way that shocks moral or ethical standards.
See it in a sentence
Human rights groups condemned the barbaric treatment of prisoners in the camp.
The ancient punishment seems barbaric when judged by today's more humane standards.
A note on using this word
Barbaric is a strong, judgmental term; applying it to a whole culture or historical era can carry unfair, ethnocentric overtones.
Words with a similar meaning
Choose a synonym to suit the sentence. Meanings can overlap without being identical.
Words with an opposite meaning
civilizedhumane
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