From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishatrocitya‧troc‧i‧ty /əˈtrɒsəti $ əˈtrɑː-/ noun (plural atrocities) [countable usually plural, uncountable] CRUELBAD BEHAVIOUR OR ACTIONSan extremely cruel and violent action, especially during a war
Examples from the Corpus
atrocity• It was, said Stephen, as appalling an atrocity as you could find.• Any atrocity, at any time, was expected from them.• Now senior officers fear the organisation is limbering up for a wave of further atrocities.• You re left with a vision of atrocity perpetuating atrocity.• That done, we piously concocted the Nuremberg code to ensure that such atrocities would never be repeated.• It was not until half a century later in the 1990s that these atrocities came to light and created an international scandal.• The brutal destruction of an entire village was one of the worst atrocities of the Vietnam war. 