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violent

[vahy-uh-luhnt]

Example Sentences Origin

adjective

acting with or characterized by uncontrolled, strong, rough force: a violent earthquake.

caused by injurious or destructive force: a violent death.

intense in force, effect, etc.; severe; extreme: violent pain; violent cold.

roughly or immoderately vehement or ardent: violent passions.

furious in impetuosity, energy, etc.: violent haste.

EXPAND

of, pertaining to, or constituting a distortion of meaning or fact.

COLLAPSE

Origin:
1300–50; Middle English < Latin violentus, equivalent to vi-, shortening (before a vowel) of base of vīs force, violence + -olentus, variant (after a vowel) of -ulentus -ulent

Related forms

vi·o·lent·ly, adverb

o·ver·vi·o·lent, adjective

o·ver·vi·o·lent·ly, adverb

o·ver·vi·o·lent·ness, noun

qua·si-vi·o·lent, adjective

EXPAND

qua·si-vi·o·lent·ly, adverb

self-vi·o·lent, adjective

ul·tra·vi·o·lent, adjective

ul·tra·vi·o·lent·ly, adverb

un·vi·o·lent, adjective

un·vi·o·lent·ly, adverb

COLLAPSE

Can be confused: violent, virulent.

Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2012.
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Link To violent

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Violent is always a great word to know.

So is bezoar. Does it mean:

a calculus or concretion found in the stomach or intestines of certain animals, esp. ruminants, formerly reputed to be an effective remedy for poison.

an arrangement of five objects, as trees, in a square or rectangle, one at each corner and one in the middle.

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Example Sentences

The mood was described as somber in places, and bordering on violent in others.

Birgeneau called on other protesters to condemn the actions of a violent few.

It's awful that there are so many violent protests happening right now.

EXPAND

The mood was described as somber in places, and bordering on violent in others.

Birgeneau called on other protesters to condemn the actions of a violent few.

It's awful that there are so many violent protests happening right now.

They're at the front lines of a violent border war-and they're losing.

The cells lie within an area of the hypothalamus with known links to violent behavior.

As a science reporter, you've covered a lot of violent weather phenomena.

Far from screwing up young minds, violent videogames offer some teens much-needed relief from modern stress.

Point being, yes, traumatic violent events are important to consider.

In the past decade, two ways of tackling violent crime have dominated police thinking.

Some encounters end with roaring and aggressive posturing, but many others turn into violent and bloody battles.

Most evidence suggests ill effects from violent video games.

To showcase stolen pieces aids and abets a filthy, violent and illegal business.

Admittedly, this kind of social anxiety had gnawed a hole of doubt in my opinion of violent videogames and kids playing them.

But those challenges don't feel at all daunting compared to the challenges of being married to a violent man.

Those are always more common than violent crimes, and therefore more likely to enter the flotsam of daily conversation.

Females often dwarf the males, and conflicts over territories and mates can get particularly violent.

Sneeze: to make a sudden violent spasmodic audible expiration of breath through the nose and mouth, especially as a reflex act.

Hawkins' creatures met a violent end and the project was scrapped.

Vivid, violent dreams can portend brain disorders by half a century, a new study finds.

But hockey is not necessarily more or less violent than other sports.

For the same reasons, today's right should drop its habit of couching political points in violent terms.

Kilauea's violent side was revealed by a layer of tephra-volcanic ash and rocks-extending many miles from the volcano.

Every day you can find much worse violent crimes commited by humans.

There are drug dealers here and armed robbers and other potentially violent criminals.

Politicians are pushing new legislation that would ban games deemed violent or that incite hatred.

Women are a rapidly growing violent demographic in our society, and have been for more than a decade.

The study points out that violent crime is higher than average there, but the overall pattern of offences is not unusual.

Black widows are solitary year-round except during this violent mating ritual.

Those who abuse substances are also at risk for committing violent acts against others.

And it is kept in place via the violent economic system.

Washington's governor regulates distribution of violent video games to kids.

There are velvet revolutions as well as violent ones.

Springtime brings the possibility of extreme weather, including violent thunder-storms and tornadoes.

Blacks make up a seventh of the population, and commit half the violent crimes.

Peace describes a society or a relationship that is operating harmoniously and without violent conflict.

Dill recently co-authored a study linking violent games to aggressive behavior.

The disturbing writings scrawled on the wall of the shooter's apartment might indicate a violent state of mind.

The team spent two weeks surrounded by turbulent magma lakes, poisonous gases, and violent storms.

Racists have seized on warrior gene research as evidence that blacks are innately more violent than whites.

There are violent splashes, followed by the sound of large bodies crashing through the undergrowth.

There's a touch of language and some sequences that border on violent.

His social media site postings were apparently coherent and not violent.

The animal's status in the region had been unknown during a quarter-century of violent conflict that halted conservation work.

Violent crimes don't make money any more, and pretty girls can be had for a few bucks.

The slow but violent collision of these three plates produces spectacular earthquakes, tsunamis, and eruptions.

Scientists are teaming up with criminologists to try using scans to predict violent or criminal behavior.

Iceland is regularly stretched, split, and torn by violent earthquakes and haphazardly rebuilt by exploding volcanoes.

Lombardo is often called on to consult on legal and insurance cases resulting from violent storms.

Many were killed in the violent bickering that seems to be a local tradition.

The team spent two weeks surrounded by turbulent magma lakes, poisonous gases and violent storms.

More violent and frequent storms, once merely a prediction of climate models, are now a matter of observation.

They're more beautiful and they're not as angry and violent as the early ones.

Similarly, baby boys born prematurely are four times more likely to attempt violent suicide than those born at full term.

Both alcohol consumption and violent crime dropped immediately as a result.

The people have suffered from all kinds of hardships including violent retribution for speaking out.

Also, whereas the twinkling of a star is fairly mild, the twinkling of a distant radio source can be violent.

Of course violent video games are not the only factor that contributes to aggression.

Fed up with extortion and violent crime, ordinary citizens are rising up against organized crime.

To be sure, there has been a sharp rise in violent crime, with well-armed drug-traffickers on the scene.

Some children, however, are prone to more violent fits that could-if left unchecked-pave a path toward.

Learn how and why these violent twisters form-and what to do if one appears near you.

Vatican, the sculpture still bears the scars-the lines where the marble fragments were fused back together-of this violent act.

All the while, studies suggest they do nothing to cut down on violent crime.

Almost everyone can name a friend or relative who has met a violent end.

Beneath the city of dazzling lights lies a dark and violent society.

Like it or not, men and women evolved different kinds of violent minds.

College football is an inherently violent sport, but rarely does that brutality extend to the team's mascots.

Favelas are notorious for drug trafficking and violent crime.

In other news, prolific juvenile mobile-phone bandits manage to skew the nation's violent crime figures.

Most of the theories identifying violent behavior are true but narrower observations of this broader phenomnea.

Extreme heat, dramatic daily temperature swings, and violent storms are the norm in this inhospitable place.

It's not surprising that violent youth crime is rising rapidly as a consequence.

Previous studies found a stone arrowhead lodged in his left shoulder, which implied a violent confrontation preceded his death.

The early days of planetary solar systems can be violent times indeed.

Violent riots and trouble-making would certainly appear to qualify.

But new technologies also have a way of influencing the history of violent behavior.

Violent bouncing of a water droplet coated with oil causes the oil layer to move inside.

Great spirits have always found violent opposition from mediocre minds.

Another two tornadoes swirled around each other, caught in a violent dance.

Ice hockey is violent because people want it violent.

Instead, it resulted in some of the first violent clashes of the antiwar movement.

It's oddly heartfelt for a film that focuses on a mildly violent misanthrope with good.

Become a career violent criminal supporting themselves with burglary, rackets, etcetera.

Eventually, the pressure from the gas becomes great enough that it penetrates the surface layer of ice in a violent eruption.

They have little or no knowledge of the outside world, and often face off against each other in violent warfare.

The violent video game has won critical acclaim for its bleak atmospherics.

Yakuza customs often involve extremely painful traditional tattoos and violent rituals.

Severe mental illness alone is not generally enough to cause violent behavior.

He had read a study describing violent behavior shared by several generations.

There are some genuinely dangerous people enrolled in universities, and sometimes faculty members are victims of violent crime.

India's elephants are squeezed for living space, stressed by development, and growing increasingly violent.

There were violent protesters as well as violent police and military.

The nebula's tranquil name contrasts starkly with the violent activity that sculpted it.

The common boundary is violent due to annihilation of matter and antimatter.

To hear him tell it, they're not always the violent affair you'd imagine.

Ultraviolet radiation and violent winds from these stars have created a large cavity in the reddish debris enveloping the cluster.

When violent crime strikes a social network, the ghosts of the dead start roaming the machines.

One view is that they're violent savages in need of a civilizing.

Many males sport serious scars or even missing limbs thought to be related to their violent encounters.

Some drama queens are violent toward others, cut themselves or threaten suicide.

The idea of a violent dinosaur satire was soon dumped.

Admittedly, this kind of social anxiety had gnawed a hole of doubt in my opinion of violent video games and kids playing them.

Researchers were intrigued by the hornets' mysterious violent attacks on the orchids.

Your statement itself speaks of inequity being the source of violent action and armed conflict.

Chandra will give astronomers a new window into the violent nature of the universe.

Some of them also cross paths with the earth, occasionally leading to violent impacts.

They explain violent celestial phenomena that no other body can.

Temperate regions would not escape increased incidence of violent localized weather patterns such as tornados or water spouts.

COLLAPSE

Collins

World English Dictionary

violent (ˈvaɪələnt)

—*adj*
1.	marked or caused by great physical force or violence: a violent stab
2.	(of a person) tending to the use of violence, esp in order to injure or intimidate others
3.	marked by intensity of any kind: a violent clash of colours
4.	characterized by an undue use of force; severe; harsh
5.	caused by or displaying strong or undue mental or emotional force: a violent tongue
6.	tending to distort the meaning or intent: a violent interpretation of the text

[C14: from Latin violentus, probably from vīs strength]

'violently

—*adv*

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 10th Edition
2009 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009
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Etymonline

Word Origin & History

violent

mid-14c.; see violence. In M.E. the word also was applied in reference to heat, sunlight, smoke, etc., with the sense "having some quality so strongly as to produce a powerful effect." Related: Violently.

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Matching Quote

"I believe that truth has only one face: that of a violent contradiction."

-Georges Bataille

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