What does sadistic mean?
Sadistic means cruel, especially in a way that involves deliberately causing suffering or taking pleasure in another person's pain. The adjective is used for actions, attitudes, personalities, and fictional portrayals, often with a strongly disapproving tone: “a sadistic punishment” suggests cruelty that may also be intended to humiliate or dominate. Although it can describe ordinary cruelty, the word frequently implies an intentional or organised pursuit of suffering, making it especially forceful in discussions of torture, tyranny, and abuse. Its historical association with the Marquis de Sade also gives it a more lurid and uncompromising edge than a general word such as “cruel,” although the two can overlap in meaning. In literary criticism and cultural commentary, “sadistic” may identify a deliberately exaggerated, darkly comic, or psychologically perverse style of cruelty.
adjectiveShowing or characterized by cruelty, especially the desire to cause suffering or to derive pleasure from another person's pain.
- Cruel or sadistic in disposition, conduct, or character.
"The novel explores the sadistic behaviour of a powerful and ruthless antagonist."
"His sadistic interrogation methods were condemned as barbaric."
"The film uses dark humour and a deliberately sadistic tone to portray the tyrant."
The word descends from the Marquis de Sade, whose name became a lasting shorthand for extreme cruelty and the pursuit of pleasure through suffering.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Etymology of sadistic
The adjective comes through French from the noun sadisme, which in turn derives from sadiste, from the name of the eighteenth-century French writer the Marquis de Sade. Sade's name became associated with extreme cruelty and sexual cruelty, and the English terms based on it entered use during the nineteenth century. The related noun sadist and the abstract noun sadism developed from the same historical root.
Related word forms
How sadistic is actually used
Strongly negative and usually deliberately condemnatory; it may describe behaviour, institutions, or fictional characters. In literary and historical contexts, it can also refer more narrowly to cruelty motivated by pleasure in suffering.
Easily confused with sadistic
A sadist is a person who enjoys or inflicts cruelty, whereas sadistic describes behaviour marked by cruelty or a desire to cause suffering.