sadism

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

In other hands, a film of such unadorned fatalism might seem useless, an exercise in emotional sadism.

From The Wall Street Journal • Mar. 26, 2026

The boys and men - whom Ms Barrett calls "crimefluencers" - subscribe to a variety of ideologies, including including nihilism, sadism, Nazism and satanism.

From BBC • Oct. 28, 2025

"Sociopathy is very consistent with the dark tetrad of narcissism, psychopathy, Machiavellianism and sadism," explained Dr. Ramani Durvasula, a licensed clinical psychologist and professor of psychology, in an email to Salon.

From Salon • Feb. 7, 2023

Accompanied by Marcelo Zarvos’s somber, dissonant score, “Emancipation” becomes a study in human sadism and endurance, with Smith delivering his French-inflected dialogue through gritted teeth and doleful, pain-weary eyes.

From Washington Post • Dec. 1, 2022

The world was full of fathers—was therefore full of misery; full of mothers—therefore of every kind of perversion from sadism to chastity; full of brothers, sisters, uncles, aunts—full of madness and suicide.

From "Brave New World" by Aldous Huxley