1. extreme cruelty or brutality
2. an uncivilized or primitive state of society
3. a word or expression that violates accepted usage in a language
Usage: linguistics

Examples

• The barbarism of the ancient gladiatorial games shocked modern historians.
• Many societies have emerged from barbarism to become advanced civilizations.
• The war crimes committed during the conflict were acts of pure barbarism.
• Anthropologists study the transition from barbarism to organized society.
• The teacher corrected the student’s barbarism in pronunciation.
• Such barbarism has no place in a civilized world.
• The novel depicted the barbarism of life in the medieval period.