brutal

Other forms of brutal

comparative

brutaller·

superlative

brutallest·

Forms marked · are formed by the regular rule rather than recorded in the source data. English keeps a few hundred irregulars and the rest follow the pattern, so the rule is right far more often than not — but it is a rule, and the mark says so.

Questions about brutal

What does brutal mean?

brutal means "(of persons or their actions) able or disposed to inflict pain or suffering". That is the primary sense; the word has 4 in total, listed in full on this page.

How many syllables are in brutal?

brutal has 2 syllables: bru-tal. The stress falls on "bru". In IPA it is /ˈbɹutəl/.

What is another word for brutal?

Close synonyms include barbarous, cruel, fell, roughshod, savage. Each sense on this page lists its own synonyms, because a word with several meanings rarely has one substitute that works for all of them.

Is brutal a common word?

brutal is banded "Common" — everyday vocabulary in speech and writing. The band comes from how often the word appears in a large corpus of everyday English, not from an editor's impression.