brute
adjective · noun · verb
Simple meaning
Characteristic of unthinking animals.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
brootIPA pronunciation (US)
ˈbɹut
This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.
IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.
Definition
Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.
adjective
Brutal; cruel; fierce; ferocious; savage; pitiless, without intelligence or reason.
Characteristic of unthinking animals; senseless, unreasoning (of humans).
Without reason or intelligence (of animals).
Unconnected with intelligence or thought; purely material, senseless.
Strong, blunt, and spontaneous; being purely physical in nature.
Crude, unpolished.
noun
A person with the characteristics of an unthinking animal; a coarse or brutal person, particularly one who is dim-witted.
verb
transitive
To shape (diamonds) by grinding them against each other.
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- C1 · Advanced
- Frequency
- Uncommon
- Typical Use
- Neutral / general English
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: Brutal; cruel; fierce; ferocious; savage; pitiless, without intelligence or reason.
Used this way, brute is a reasonably familiar word carrying real weight of difficulty or hurt. It lands hard, so it overstates anything mild. It turns up most in personal or emotional discussion and literature or storytelling contexts.
- Emotional tone
- Strongly negative
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Very strong
- How common
- Moderately common
- Connotation
- Harsh or blunt
- Usage feel
- Everyday but emotionally strong
Where it naturally appears
- Personal/emotional discussion
- Literature/storytelling
Usage note
Brute is emotionally heavy: it suggests deep or lasting feeling, not a passing mood, so it can overstate a small reaction.
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
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Common Patterns and Combinations
How this word naturally appears with others.
Word Family
Related forms, grouped by how they connect.
More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin
Synonyms
Sense: brutal
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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.