Meaning & use
savageness
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Meanings
noununcountablerare
The quality of being fierce, wild, or extremely cruel.
Grammar: Uncountable, so it has no plural and takes a singular verb: the savageness of the attack was shocking.
Patterns
- the savageness of something
- with savageness
The savageness of the storm surprised even the oldest fishermen.
Critics condemned the savageness of the punishment.
There was a strange savageness in the way the dog defended its puppies.
noununcountableliteraryrare
The state of being wild and untouched by human control.
Grammar: Also uncountable; used mainly in descriptions of nature or landscape.
Patterns
- the savageness of nature
- the savageness of the landscape
The savageness of the mountains made the valley below seem gentle.
He wrote about the savageness of the sea in winter.
Common combinations
- the savageness of the attack
- The savageness of the attack left the whole town in shock.
- with savageness
- The wind blew with savageness all night.
- a kind of savageness
- There was a kind of savageness in his eyes that frightened her.
Synonyms and how they differ
- savagery
- Much more common than savageness and used for violent cruelty, especially in news and history writing.
- fierceness
- Focuses on energy and anger rather than cruelty; it can be positive, as in the fierceness of a competitor.
- brutality
- Stronger and more formal, used mostly for cruel treatment of people or animals.
Opposites
Word family
Commonly confused: savageness or savagery?
savageness vs savagery
Savagery is the common everyday word; savageness is rare and sounds more literary.
Practice
Which sentence uses savageness most naturally?
Choose one answer.
Savageness is an uncountable noun, so it fits in 'the savageness of the attack'. Options 2 and 4 use it as a verb or plural, which is impossible, and option 3 wrongly treats an uncountable noun as countable.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “savageness”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.