violence

VY-uh-luhns/ˈvaɪ.(ə.)ləns/

4 meanings of violence

1
physical harmnoununcountable
The use of physical force to hurt people or damage property, including fighting that spreads through an area or community.
The crowd's anger erupted into violence within minutes.
She fled a home marked by constant violence.
UsageMost often with no a: violence broke out. Count single events as acts of violence; the target follows against: violence against women.
Note
Here the harm is the point, where the 'extreme force' meaning needs only force. It can also take a plural when separate kinds are being counted. Diana Abu-Jaber's Arabian Jazz (1993) speaks of the xenophobias and violences the Middle East shares with the rest of the world.
2
extreme forcenoununcountable
Extreme force or intensity.
The violence of the eruption shattered windows miles away.
He gripped the rope with such violence that his knuckles whitened.
UsageOften the violence of something, or with violence, meaning forcefully: the violence of the storm, slammed with violence.
Similarforce, ferocity, intensity, fury, power
Oppositegentleness
Note
Force with no victim required: storms, eruptions and flung objects can all have violence. Barnabe Googe's translation of The Popish Kingdome (1570) has a burning wheel hurled down a mountain with violence.
3
wrong donenounfigurativelyuncountable
An act of injustice or wrong done to someone or something.
The hasty edit did violence to the author's careful argument.
Critics said the ruling did violence to the spirit of the constitution.
UsageUsually in do violence to something, meaning to distort or betray it: do violence to the facts.
Similardamage, harm, injustice
Oppositejustice
Note
Harm done to things that cannot bleed, such as a text, an argument or a principle. A second use names harm built into a society rather than dealt by one hand. Kevin J. O'Brien's The Violence of Climate Change (2017) counts racism and sexism among problems of structural violence.

Less common meaning

4
verbnonstandardtransitive
To subject a person or place to violence.
And the triad is made complete by she who is violenced by him.
2011, Timothy D. Forsyth, The Alien
He physically violenced my mother, physically violenced me and my brothers, and was sexually abusive to me until I was in second grade.
2012, Megan Sweeney, The Story Within Us: Women Prisoners Reflect on Reading
UsageOften passive (violenced by someone), sometimes active (he violenced them). In careful writing, use subject to violence instead.
Similarattack, assault, brutalize, ravage

Practice

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Origin

Latin "violentia," formed from the adjective "violentus" (violent), reached English by way of Old French and Middle English. It took the place of the native Old English word "stræc."