Violent means using force that hurts. A violent man who throws a punch, a violent robbery, a peaceful march that turns violent after dark.
The word reaches well past people to anything sudden and damaging: a violent storm, a violent explosion, a violent coughing fit that leaves you breathless. Feelings get it too, so there are violent arguments in which nobody is touched and a violent dislike of a colleague. The noun is violence and the adverb violently, as in 'he shook his head violently'. The one to watch is violet, a single letter away and completely unrelated: a small purple flower and the colour named after it.
1adjectiveviolentUsing physical force meant to hurt or damage.~80%
“He has a long record of violent behaviour.”
synonyms: brutal, savage
2adjectivefierceVery strong and sudden, in a way that damages or shocks.~18%
“A violent storm tore the roof off the barn.”
3adjectivehardVery strong and hard to control, said of a feeling or a reaction.~2%
“They had a violent argument about money.”
Shares are an estimate: a language model read 16 sentences found in the wild and placed 16 of them on a sense — a count of our sample, not a measurement of English.
Violent comes from Latin violentus, built on vis, 'strength', and reached English through Old French and Middle English with its spelling intact. It pushed out the older native word straec. Underneath all the damage, then, sits nothing more than the Latin word for force.
Middle English
violent
English, today
violent
Built from
From Middle English violent. From Middle English violent, from Old French violent, from Latin violentus, from vīs (“strength”). Displaced native stræc. For the verb, compare French violenter.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA