What does bestial mean?
Bestial is an adjective describing something that relates to, resembles, or is characteristic of a beast — particularly in the sense of being brutal, savage, or stripped of human intelligence and moral restraint. While its literal sense simply means 'of animals,' it is overwhelmingly used figuratively to condemn acts of extreme cruelty or depravity: writers speak of bestial violence, bestial instincts, or a crime of bestial savagery. The word derives from Latin bestialis, formed on bestia, meaning beast, and shares its root with related words such as beast, bestiary, and bestiality. Formal and literary in tone, bestial is stronger than beastly and far more condemnatory than animalistic; it implies not just animality but a shocking lapse into it by beings who should know better. Its adverb is bestially, and its noun form, bestiality, refers both to brutish behavior and, in a separate legal and clinical sense, to sexual relations between humans and animals.
adjectiveRelating to, resembling, or characteristic of a beast or animal; especially savage, brutish, and lacking human intelligence or moral feeling.
- Of or relating to beasts or lower animals.
- Resembling a beast in being brutal, savage, or devoid of human feeling or intelligence; depraved or cruel.
"The novel depicts war as a descent into bestial violence that strips men of their humanity."
"The report described the prisoners' treatment in terms usually reserved for bestial savagery."
"He argued that hunger awakens a bestial side of human nature that civilization barely contains."
"Bestial" comes straight from the Latin word for "beast" — the same root that gives us "beast," "bestiary," and "bestiality" — so when you call an act bestial, you're literally saying it belongs to the animal, not the human, world.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Etymology of bestial
Bestial comes from Latin bestialis, meaning 'of beasts,' derived from bestia, the Latin word for a wild animal or brute creature. English adopted the word in the late Middle Ages, with written use attested from around the fifteenth century. The same Latin root produced the English words beast, bestiary, and bestiality, making them true cognates within English itself.
Related word forms
How bestial is actually used
Bestial is formal to literary in register and carries strongly negative connotations; it is typically reserved for describing extreme cruelty, violence, or degradation rather than ordinary bad behavior. It is more intense than 'beastly' and more condemnatory than merely 'animalistic,' which can sometimes be neutral.
Easily confused with bestial
Beastly is a broader and often milder word for anything unpleasant or animal-like (and in British English can simply mean 'very'), while bestial specifically connotes savage, depraved brutality.