"brutal" in the adjective sense
1. barbarous, brutal, cruel, fell, roughshod, savage, vicious
of persons or their actions) able or disposed to inflict pain or suffering
"a barbarous crime"
"brutal beatings"
"cruel tortures"
"Stalin's roughshod treatment of the kulaks"
"a savage slap"
"vicious kicks"
2. brutal, unrelenting
punishingly harsh
"the brutal summer sun"
"a brutal winter"
3. beastly, bestial, brute, brutish, brutal
resembling a beast showing lack of human sensibility
"beastly desires"
"a bestial nature"
"brute force"
"a dull and brutish man"
"bestial treatment of prisoners"
4. brutal
disagreeably direct and precise
"he spoke with brutal honesty"
Source: WordNet® (An amazing lexical database of English)
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