How to Use sadism in a Sentence

sadism

noun
  • Yet little in his life story would suggest the sadism of those acts.
    — latimes.com, 27 Apr. 2018
  • Still, the sadism of the show’s fictional world finds ample comparisons in our own.
    — Moira Donegan, New Yorker, 11 Apr. 2025
  • And as bad as von Trier's playful sadism may be, his defensive pedantry may be even worse.
    — Justin Chang, latimes.com, 15 May 2018
  • Compelling him to testify would be not thoroughness but sadism.
    — Peggy Noonan, WSJ, 23 Jan. 2020
  • But this can also sound like a nonviolent (and still extremely painful) form of sadism.
    — New York Times, 18 Mar. 2022
  • Humor responds to a misfortune with sadism and schadenfreude.
    — Big Think, 23 Sep. 2025
  • Laaksonen included scenes of kink and bondage, dominance, sadism and masochism in his work.
    — R. Daniel Foster, Los Angeles Times, 2 Oct. 2019
  • Certain moments drift into sadism (there’s some ugly knife work), though this is also part of the genre handbook.
    — Manohla Dargis, New York Times, 2 Mar. 2020
  • To be sure, the drive to appropriate was often bound up with sadism and love of domination.
    — Literary Hub, 22 Sep. 2025
  • That might sound sadistic; indeed, sadism is something of a Hitchcockian virtue.
    — Justin Chang, New Yorker, 14 Aug. 2025
  • What was new about the Jacobins was a deliberate, gloating sadism that is still shocking to read about.
    — Adam Gopnik, The New Yorker, 16 Aug. 2021
  • Most past claims about Halloween sadism lack such prominent spokespeople.
    — Joel Best, CNN, 31 Oct. 2022
  • This combination of elitism and sadism is distinct to Fincher, as is his puke-and-urine color scheme.
    — Armond White, National Review, 17 Nov. 2023
  • The sadism glitch didn’t keep Minaj from being the unquestioned winner of the telecast.
    — Chris Willman, Variety, 29 Aug. 2022
  • The show portrays Lydia’s sadism but doesn’t really seem to comprehend it.
    — Sophie Gilbert, The Atlantic, 13 July 2019
  • All the sadism which the academic Left has tried to make unacceptable to its students will come flooding back.
    — Zack Beauchamp, Vox, 7 Dec. 2018
  • In contrast to most movies about serial killers, this one offers nary a glimpse of violence, let alone any wallowing in sadism.
    — Dennis Harvey, Variety, 6 Sep. 2024
  • The Nazis’ sadism is displayed when Lange orders a prisoner to play his violin.
    — Frank Scheck, The Hollywood Reporter, 13 Mar. 2025
  • Eroticism and sadism abound here between the characters, and the film includes a variety of explicit scenes.
    — Katherine J Igoe, Marie Claire, 1 Oct. 2021
  • The acronym stands for bondage and discipline, domination and submission, sadism and masochism.
    — Dominique Fluker, Essence, 7 Sep. 2023
  • Haynes allows his visitors, many motivated by racist sadism, to execute Leigh over and over again.
    — Josephine Livingstone, New Republic, 12 Jan. 2018
  • But the fact is that this episode of sadism by rogue cops and innumerable others incidents like it have been tolerated and covered up for decades.
    — Jason Flom, Rolling Stone, 6 May 2024
  • The images have swept across newspapers and social media, hard evidence of Russian sadism.
    — Sophie Pinkham, The New York Review of Books, 16 Nov. 2023
  • And some of those eyes may also have seen what seems unmistakable today, an eroticized image of female bondage, a queasy mix of sympathy and sadism.
    — New York Times, 10 Mar. 2022
  • Whatever the reason for the too-heavy dose — accident, hands shaking, sadism — there is no visual difference between that dose and a light one.
    — Jesse Barron, New York Times, 16 Sep. 2020
  • In humans, Rorschach inkblots might help to ferret out a killer by coaxing out hints of anger or sadism — emotions that might motivate someone to commit heinous acts.
    — Nathaniel Scharping, Discover Magazine, 7 June 2018
  • There’s always been a steely, sinister edge to Connery’s screen presence, a hint of sadism beneath all his beauty, wit and physical grace.
    — Justin Chang, Los Angeles Times, 31 Oct. 2020
  • His lament that Hurricane Maria has derailed the federal budget dressed his sadism up in cool, Olympian judgment.
    — Katy Waldman, Slate Magazine, 13 Oct. 2017
  • The invading parasite is a culture of hate and paranoia and sadism — mass hysteria as sanctioned by the government that is supposed to protect you.
    — Rachel Raposas, PEOPLE, 29 Sep. 2025
  • The expedient relations between empathy and sadism, the possibility that the two words might name the same feeling, is a large theme in the book.
    — Hannah Gold, Harper’s Magazine , 26 Oct. 2022

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'sadism.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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