Word.ws English Dictionary

bestial

/ˈbɛs.ti.əl/US/ˈbɛs.t͡ʃəl/

bestial adjective: beast-like.

Adjective

bestial (comparative more bestial, superlative most bestial)

  1. (figuratively, literally) Beast-like.
    • Reputation, reputation, reputation! O, I have lost my reputation! I have lost the immortal part of myself, and what remains is bestial.c. 1603–1604 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Othello, the Moore of Venice”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac...
    • By thee adulterous lust was driven from men /
      Among the bestial herds to range […]1667, John Milton, “Book IV”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC; republished...

Noun

bestial pl (plural only)

  1. (Scotland, obsolete, plural, plural-only) Cattle.
    • […] much must depend upon the way in which bestial are bought or reared, and the state of the markets when they are sold.1845, The New Statistical Account of Scotland: Forfar, Kincardine, page 94

bestial meaning in Urdu, Bengali, Malayalam and Kannada

bestial in Urdu

بےتمیز, حیوان

bestial in Bengali

beast-like
পাশবিক paśbik, হায়ওয়ানী haẏōẇani

bestial in Malayalam

മൃഗതുല്യമായ

bestial in Kannada

ಪಶುವಿನ, ಮೃಗೀಯ, ಪಾಶವೀ, ಒರಟಾದ, ಅನಾಗರಿಕ, ಅಸಂಸ್ಕೃತ

Examples of bestial in a sentence

  • His was a bestial face, a face that bore the stamp of Nature's eternal injustice.1900 April, Willa Cather, “Eric Hermannson's Soul”, in Cosmopolitan:
  • No longer would there be aught to fear from prowling beasts, or from the bestial Russian.1913, Edgar Rice Burroughs, The Return of Tarzan, New York: Ballantine Books, published 1963, page 177:

All 10 example sentences with bestial

Synonyms of bestial

All synonyms of bestial

Forms of bestial

comparativemore bestial
superlativemost bestial

Origin of bestial

From Middle English bestial, from Old French bestial, from Late Latin bēstiālis, from Latin bēstia (“beast”) (whence English beast).

From Middle Scots bestiall, from Middle English bestayle, from Old French bestaille, from Late Latin bēstiālia; later reinforced and remodelled on Middle French bestial, itself from Late Latin bēstiālis.

Words formed from bestial

Questions about bestial

What does bestial mean?
Bestial means beast-like.
What is bestial in Urdu?
Bestial in Urdu is بےتمیز, حیوان. See Bestial meaning in Urdu.
How do you use bestial in a sentence?
His was a bestial face, a face that bore the stamp of Nature's eternal injustice.
What part of speech is bestial?
Bestial can be an adjective or a noun.
How do you pronounce bestial?
Bestial is pronounced /ˈbɛs.ti.əl/ (UK).

Words near bestial in the dictionary

  1. bestestest
  2. besteth
  3. bestetsoned
  4. bestfriend
  5. bestfriends
  6. bestial
  7. bestialise
  8. bestialised
  9. bestialises
  10. bestialising
  11. bestialism

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: bestial (page history and authors); bestial (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); bestial (Malayalam Wiktionary) (page history and authors); bestial (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-bestial.wav.

Cite this entry: “bestial.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/bestial. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.