Word.ws English Dictionary

cruelness

cruelness noun: the state of being cruel; cruelty.

Noun

cruelness (usually uncountable, plural cruelnesses)

  1. (usually) The state of being cruel; cruelty.
    • ‘Sea! You listening to me at this moment I am speaking to you? You are full of cruelness, you are like women, you sea! Have you finished with me yet or what?’2006, Alexis Wright, Carpentaria, Constable (2009), page 259

Forms of cruelness

pluralcruelnesses

Origin of cruelness

From Middle English cruelnesse; equivalent to cruel + -ness.

Questions about cruelness

What does cruelness mean?
Cruelness means the state of being cruel; cruelty.
What part of speech is cruelness?
Cruelness is a noun.
What is the plural of cruelness?
The plural of cruelness is cruelnesses.

Words near cruelness in the dictionary

  1. cruells
  2. cruelltie
  3. cruellties
  4. cruellty
  5. cruelly
  6. cruelness
  7. cruelnesses
  8. cruels
  9. cruelsome
  10. crueltie
  11. cruelties

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: cruelness (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.

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