Brutal

How to spell brutal

6 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce brutal

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does brutal mean?

1. adjectiveSavagely violent, cruel, or harsh in a way that shows no mercy or softening.

Brutal in a sentence

• The report described a brutal attack outside the station.

• She gave him a brutal but honest assessment of the proposal.

Where does brutal come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word descends from the Latin brutus, an adjective that originally meant 'heavy', 'dull', or 'unreasoning', the same sense that gave the animal kingdom the noun 'brute' for a creature without reason. From brutus, medieval Latin formed brutalis, describing what belonged to or resembled a beast, and French took this up as brutal. English borrowed it in the fifteenth century, at first to mean 'beast-like' or lacking human reason, before the meaning hardened into the modern sense of savage, cruel, and pitilessly violent. A weaker, almost admiring use survives today when we speak of 'brutal honesty', meaning frankness so direct it stings. The spelling is mercifully phonetic, with the single 't' and the plain '-al' ending tripping up very few adult writers.

How the word is built

• brut- (from Latin brutus: heavy, dull, irrational)
• -al (adjective suffix)