English → Latin
“cruel” in Latin
crūdēlisunfeeling, rude; ruthless, cruel, mercilesssaevusfurious, ferocious, fierce, violent, barbarous, cruel, savageferuswild, savage, fierce, cruel; uncivilized, uncultivated; untamed, roughimmānisimmense, enormous, huge, vast; brutal, inhuman, frightful, savagedūrushard; rough; harsh; hardy; vigorousatrōxfierce, savage, bloody; heinous, cruel, severe; terrible, frightening, dreadfulinhūmānusinhuman; savage, barbarous; uncivil, unmannerly, churlish, discourteousbarbarusforeign, strange; savage, hostile; barbaric, barbarous, uncivilizeddīrusfearful; ominous; dreadful, detestable
The English word cruel itself goes back to Latin crūdēlis.
Riddle & Arnold A Copious and Critical English–Latin Lexicon, 1864
cruel
crudelis (cruelly disposed, acting with cruelty, opposed to clemens): saevus (blood-thirsty, cruel; αἰνός): ferus (wild by nature, opposed to mitis; different from ferox, i. e., untamed, haughty, etc.): immanis (producing terror from its unnatural savageness; hence wild, cruel, opposed to mansuetus. These four, also, of whatever shows or proceeds from cruelty). (The words are found in this connection and order.) dirus (dreadful; as a property of things or persons) et immanis; ferus et immanis; immanis et crudelis: durus (hard, inexorable, of persons, as well as their character, opposed to misericors): atrox (fearful; likely to make an impression of terror on anybody, of things; e.g., deed, act). (The words are found in this connection and order.) saevus et atrox. inhumanus (inhuman): barbarus (cruel by nature; e.g., neque tam barbari lingua et natione illi, quam tu natura et moribus, Cic.). A cruel character or disposition, immanis natura (Cic.): a cruel step-mother, dira noverca: very cruel, crudelissimus (of persons and things): a most cruel punishment, supplicium exempli parum memoris legum humanarum.
Quick answer
- What is the Latin word for cruel?
- The usual Latin words for “cruel” are crūdēlis, saevus, ferus; also immānis, dūrus, atrōx. The right choice depends on the sense; see the distinctions below.
Entry from J. E. Riddle & T. K. Arnold, A Copious and Critical English–Latin Lexicon (rev. C. Anthon, New York: Harper, 1864), digitised by Fergus J. P. Walsh, CC BY-SA 4.0; Latin markup adapted by latindictionary.co.